


The Witch and the Xiaolin Wedding

by rosieblue



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: A How Did We Get Here situation, Backstory, Biracial Omi, Black Raimundo, Flashbacks, Gen, Lore I guess, Past and Present
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 42,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosieblue/pseuds/rosieblue
Summary: When Wuya is invited to Omi's wedding at the Xiaolin Temple, she expects almost anything except a trip down memory lane and the weird conversations everyone keeps trying to have with her.
Relationships: relationship mentioned inside but super predictable too
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	1. Inviting a Witch to a Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> Let's just say she needed a backstory and I had time on my hands and here we are. By the way, this reads as a one-shot but...it's like really, really long so I didn't want to subject anyone to that. Props to you, if you can read it that way, though.

_Present day_

Entering this temple again shouldn’t have felt as strange as it did, but Wuya supposed that it was a little strange.

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, the Heylin witch had gone into the Xiaolin temple, unarmed, sans powers, and with shoes on. For a wedding, of all occasions.

_I shouldn’t have even entertained the idea_ , Wuya thought, feeling something close to nervousness for the first time in a while.

But then again, how could she _not_ entertain that idea? He’d come to the sectioned part of Chase Young’s citadel that she called her lair, respectful as ever, and gave her an invitation to his wedding with a sincerity only he could manage.

“What is this?”, Wuya remembered she’d asked, looking at the invite with a confused disdain.

Omi pursed his lips. “I know, the design’s not that great but to be fair, we fought over the invites and by the time we’d agreed on something, that design ran out, so now we have… _this_.”

“If you have enough sense to marry someone then you have enough sense to know what I’m talking about, Omi.”

She paused, sighing. “Why are you inviting me? Just because I’ve been out of action doesn’t mean I’m not still your enemy.”

“I know that”, Omi nodded, fixing his curls as he did. Wait, _when_ did _he_ grow hair? Has she been out for that long? At first Wuya only registered the healthy tan he’d had and the immense growth spurt as the only signs he’d changed.

“And it doesn’t bother me much”, he added, seemingly oblivious to Wuya’s double-take at his hair. “You know you’re talking to the guy who tried convincing Chase Young to be Xiaolin again for, like, three years, right?”

Nodding, Wuya raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of Chase, you’re inviting me so are you inviting him? You must be.”

“You’d think that”, Omi said, scoffing a little. At her confused look, he added, “I came to invite you both actually but I didn’t find him here, so I guess he’s missing out on the event of a lifetime!”

A pause. “By the way, that warrior, Xia, makes for one terrible lair-manager. No manners whatsoever.”

Although she’d allowed that with a knowing smile, the witch couldn’t help but agree. When Chase left his citadel, he tended to transform one of his cat warriors back to a human so they could manage the lair. For the last few decades, his prime choice had been Xia, which was unfortunate for others and incredibly entertaining for him.

But that wasn’t what the grownup Xiaolin Dragon was here to talk about, was it?

“Well, I still don’t see why you’re inviting me to your wedding”, Wuya said, shrugging. “And I’m not a fan of participating in things I don’t understand.”

Omi sighed. “I mean, you disappeared eleven years ago and when you returned last year, you haven’t been causing us any trouble so—”

Well, _that_ was annoying. Wuya frowned. “Yes, I know, I _know_ —I took a nap that cost me a little more than a decade on a technicality. I didn’t invent immortality!”

“Yeah, anyway…I still want you to come to my wedding because, as ridiculous as this sounds, you’re the reason my life is what is.”

At that, Wuya raised an eyebrow. “Elaborate.”

“When Jack Spicer opened that puzzle-box all those years ago”, Omi began. “You came out of it and you caused a balance shift so extreme, Master Fung had to call the rest of the Xiaolin Dragons to the temple early.”

A pause. “And that was the best thing that happened to me because of _a_ _lot_ of things—and one of those things is that I met someone I love with all my heart.”

Another pause. “If you didn’t disrupt everything, I would have been more or less the same as I was before. And I probably wouldn’t have gone further than Guangzhou.”

Eyeing the invitation and the cursive penmanship spelling out Fung Omi & Jermaine Lee, both in Mandarin and English, Wuya sighed.

She recognized the name Jermaine but didn’t want to assume it was who she’d thought it was. _But what happened to that kid_ , Wuya now thought curiously. He must have been doing something impressive right now—Chase rarely chose apprentices and when he did, they tended to become great and important people.

It doesn’t matter, Wuya thought, chiding herself. What mattered now was the wedding invitation in her hands and the Dragon with the pleading eyes sitting across from her. Ignoring the latter, the witch couldn’t help but let her thoughts roam now.

Would Jack Spicer be there, by Omi’s logic, then? And if Jack was invited, would someone like Katnappe be invited too?

Wuya certainly wouldn’t mind the Heylin company and, reluctantly, she could admit it’d be interesting to see how they’d turned out. And it’d be interesting to see how the other runts turned out as well.

_Come to think of it, I haven’t left this cave in years_ , Wuya thought. She looked up to see whether Omi was still giving her that strange pleading look and grimaced when she saw he still was. She’d probably relent soon. If not for the Xiaolin brat’s insistence then it’d be for another chance to see her old home under a non-violent pretense.

See, before Wuya was a notorious Heylin witch terrorizing the Xiaolin temple, she’d only been a student there. She was until everything soured.

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

The day she turned sixteen, Wuya had realized something important. She’d forgotten she was another year older.

To be fair, it wasn’t an event. They never celebrated the day they were born at the temple. Master Chen had told her once that there were a lot of people and if they celebrated for one, they’d have to celebrate the rest.

_Besides_ , Master Chen would say whenever she asked, widening his eyes in a comic fashion that was meant to be scary. _Everyone knows where Xiaolin stood on earthly attachments, Wuya_. _Did you forget?_

So, Wuya did what any other sixteen year-old would do. Sulk and pretend she was not affected. She did not need another lecture.

In a way, though, the temple had given her a gift without noticing. Today was an important day, in of itself. Today, the apprentice would get to discover a new world.

As she packed and prepared herself for the day, Wuya remembered the day she’d been sent to the temple. It’d been six, almost seven, years ago but it remained vivid in her head.

All she had from that time was a raggedy cloth doll. Her father, Xun, had spent a week making it. She’d held it in her hand as her father held her other hand that night he left her at the temple.

That had been the very first time little Wuya had been left alone. Usually, she was never allowed to be anywhere by herself. Even her town’s market was off-limits if she was without any of her siblings.

Her father had said that dangers came when you least expected them and that they couldn’t risk any chances with her safety and her mother had swiftly agreed. But this protectiveness had changed all of a sudden.

Her father had woken her up in the middle of the night and told her they were taking a trip. It seemed strange that this trip would make him cry, but she didn’t judge him. The last time they took a trip was because her mother’s father had died.

At the end of this trip, Xun had left her at the gates of the Xiaolin temple with a then-apprentice Master Wu and told her to keep her doll because it will keep her safe. Then he said he’d visit.

Since she hadn’t died yet, Wuya supposed the doll kept its use. That was one promise kept, but as for the other…well, it was better to not dwell on it now.

It’d been too long since she’d seen her father, she’d forgotten what his face looked like. She didn’t remember him or her mother or any of her siblings. Not well enough anyway.

And it still didn’t matter. She was going to be positive today. She had to.

Of all days, this was the one she had to keep a hopeful mind for the most. As if hearing her thoughts, a snort made its way into her tiny chamber.

“I take it you’ve already made up your mind then”, a sarcastic voice that could only be Chase Young’s made its way to her ears. Wuya groaned, immediately.

She scoffed and turned to face him. “You cannot make informed decisions without the information, Chase. That’s the whole point.”

“Yeah, well”, he began, forcefully casual. “I won’t be bothered if you left.”

That was a lie, Wuya knew. Even Chase, with a subtly worried gaze, knew it was a lie but he still said it.

Even though she was only a regular Xiaolin apprentice and he was meant to be the Xiaolin Dragon of Fire and their training times couldn’t be more different, they somehow managed to be good friends.

The very first day they’d met, when they were both nine, Chase had proudly declared that he was a Dragon and said that she had hair the color of his elements so they had to be friends.

Later on, they’d discovered they shared an interest in the scroll room’s restricted section. And there was the added bonus of Wuya being the only one who didn’t treat Chase like the temple’s master because he happened to be a Dragon with an important father.

“What do you hope to gain anyway?”, Chase asked, taking her out of her thoughts. “The Heylin know _nothing_ of use.”

Wuya sighed. She knew that although the Exchange was an old tradition the Xiaolin and Heylin temples upheld, neither Chase nor Master Young, his father, approved of it.

_It wasn’t a big deal anyway_ , the young girl thought. And if it was, then Master Young missed his chance to stop it from becoming reality. Both temples had agreed to the terms two decades ago to stop the infighting between them.

Once on the brink of adulthood, like she was, all apprentices would get to leave their home temple to live in its sister temple. After a period—four weeks, maybe five—the apprentice would return to their original temple and could debate over which temple to choose as long as they liked.

Most apprentices chose their original temples, though there were notable deviations. Technically, the ones who left hadn’t done anything wrong, but in the unspoken laws of the Xiaolin temple, they were defectors.

Knowing this, Wuya worried about her choice. She knew she would always choose the Xiaolin. She was positive of this. A part of her had doubts, however. _What_ _if_ …

“Well”, she began, finally answering the Dragon’s question. “At the very least, I’ll get a change of scenery.”

“So, _that’s_ why you’re doing this exchange”, Chase said, narrowing his eyes. “Sightseeing?”

Wuya knew she didn’t have to defend her decision, but, well, she had to. Chase made it sound stupid and it wasn’t. Every apprentice was entitled to this rite of passage and so was she.

She told him exactly that, coupled with a few glares, scoffs, and eye-rolls. “And you don’t have to enjoy all of my decisions.”

“Oh, I’m _aware_ ”, Chase said, rolling his eyes. “I’ve tried your jasmine tea before.”

With one more item safely secured in her belongings, Wuya turned to give Chase a disgusted expression but saw that he wasn’t being intentionally malicious.

He was scared, she realized, of being alone. But he was going to be the Fire Dragon, so he was loved and respected and admired and had everything a boy his age could want. And he wasn’t even alone.

“You and Guan will get to spend more time together, just you two”, Wuya sympathetically said. The way Chase talked about the other Dragon, their friend, left no room for debate. “You wanted that, didn’t you?”

At that, the younger boy’s face flushed red as he bristled. “Just because I told you that in confidence doesn’t—”

“Oh, shut up, Chase”, she said. “I think _everyone_ suspects it at this point. Word reached the maids and when the maids gossip…”

“The entire world knows”, the warrior finished, dismayed. “That doesn’t mean you should go around saying it, though.”

_He is afraid of his father_ , she thought. Chase was always pretending like he lived to only to be a Dragon and nothing else. That image might have pleased Master Young to a degree but it wasn’t really Chase.

_One day_ , Wuya thought, as she embraced her shocked friend. One day, he will grow a backbone and talk back to his father. She couldn’t worry now and forget about her packing.

Oddly, though, as Wuya packed, she felt a burgeoning sense of finality. Everything felt like it was going to die right after she touched it.

It was like she was starting a long goodbye. Sixteen-hundred years after that day, Wuya supposed she was about right.


	2. The Homecoming

_Present day_

Entering the Xiaolin temple’s courtyard, Wuya found that the temple hadn’t changed since the last time she’d tried to destroy it.

The gates were the same and so were the floorboards and every room looked like an especially preserved window to the past. The only thing that changed, as she discovered through a quick tour with a hasty apprentice, was the vault, which was finally loot-proof.

Still, of all that she saw, Wuya found herself fascinated by one thing. One of the trees shading the koi pond.

For one thing, it looked like it’d been around for quite some time. For another, it reminded her a lot of the three where she and Ju, one maid who reminded her greatly of one of her sisters, used to meet up by to gossip their hearts out.

Tearing her eyes away from that tree, Wuya surveyed the rest of the scene. _So, this was where the venue was going to be_. An odd but sentimental choice that made sense for the monk who asked her to come.

If Wuya were a better person, she’d have admitted that the wedding venue was coming up well together. There a few tables arranged with set-pieces, here and there, and there were venue-round decorations that added a touch of festivity to the courtyard. Not to mention that it went really well with the koi pond backdrop.

Sighing, Wuya imagined what would old Master Chen say. The man didn’t let them celebrate birthdays, so she knew he’d have _a_ _lot_ to say about a wedding being held here. Before she could dwell on the scenarios, though, someone interrupted.

“I know, I know”, a slightly shrill voice said, as it drew nearer. “I’m a _god_ for pulling this off, but what else is new?”

She turned around to see whoever it was that was talking to her and raised an eyebrow. In front of Wuya now was a fairly familiar woman.

The woman wasn’t especially tall, but she was sharply dressed in a pink kimono and light makeup and an amused expression. She didn’t look like this the last time Wuya had seen her, but to be fair, she’d been glaring up a storm while throwing her fireballs. And now, she had no wigs on either.

“It’s only _slightly_ less tacky than I expected it to be”, Wuya allowed, trying not to scowl. She couldn’t help but notice that her own dress, plain and light blue, looked drab in comparison to the warrior’s kimono. “Mediocre job, but it’ll do.”

Kimiko rolled her eyes and instantly transformed to the bratty opponent the witch remembered from a long time ago. “Oh, so you _did_ bring your winning personality. You know you’ll tone it down, right? I’m _not_ asking.”

Wuya scoffed, despite herself. She takes an unwittingly too long nap and those pipsqueaks think they get to order her around. Sure, they grew up but she had centuries as a head start. Before she could retort, though, Kimiko sighed.

“Well, I have nothing to do now, I think”, she said, seemingly implying something. “So how about a little hag party catchup before it all goes down?”

The witch crossed her arms. Again with the _‘hag’s_. “You’re not twelve anymore, little girl.”

“I know”, Kimiko said, smiling like they were sharing an inside joke. “I was including myself. I need a drink; I’ve been up for a long time and I’m _on_ _the_ _edge_.”

_Jack would have told her to do a flip_ , Wuya thought. She shook her head. “You were up organizing this?”

“No, _please_ , don’t tone down your condescension.”

Kimiko paused and raised a finger. Although she was smirking, she looked a little too tired. “Truce, today? I’m not up for all this right now.”

“Fine”, Wuya forced. Looking between herself and Kimiko and then the other apprentices walking around, she felt a little uncomfortable. Everyone was dressed in pinks and oranges. “I didn’t know there was a dress code.”

“There isn’t”, the other woman said, though the witch was positive she’d seen her give Wuya’s formal robe an unpleasant onceover when she saw her. “These are apprentice formal robes and I’m only wearing pink because it’s lucky.”

Taking a look at herself, Kimiko added. “But it’s not that good for dancing, so I’m probably going to change after the ceremony and the photos.”

Another pause. “So, what were _you_ up to in the last twelve years? Omi said it was a coma.”

Wuya sighed. Couldn’t they move past this already?

Chase Young had laughed at her when she went to tell him she’d _just_ woken up from her nap. His cackles had been so loud, Wuya did not even get to yell at him for not waking her up like she’d asked. She really didn’t like this story.

It felt good to see Chase laugh again at something she said, sure, but she didn’t appreciate it being at her expense. It wasn’t her fault immortality was messy. She didn’t put down the rules. And now, she had another curious Fire Dragon to deal with.

“I was”, Wuya began, slowly. “Taking a nap and I may have lost track of time. You may laugh now but be warned, after this truce is over, I _will_ kill you.”

With her expression unchanged, Kimiko shrugged. “Why would I laugh? You just became my hero.”

“…Really?”

“Well, not really because it’s _you_ , but it’s pretty close”, the grownup warrior said. She didn’t seem to be lying. “I mean, I _wish_ I can take a twelve-year nap. Sometimes, I feel like that’s all I need. I’m just _tired_ all the time.”

Noticing the witch’s confusion, she added. “Right, your coma.”

Kimiko paused to loudly exhale. “I have this really demanding career now—it takes a toll on me and I lowkey think I’m developing a sleeping disorder. Well, more of a sleeping disorder. I actually think I should see a doctor about this.”

Another pause. “Also, I have twins so that adds a lot to the tiredness thing.”

When the witch said nothing and did nothing but look slightly more curious, Kimiko raised an eyebrow and sighed. “ _Shocking_ , I know but I do.”

And, well, Wuya couldn’t deny she _was_ shocked. And she was in no way being sarcastic.

Back when she was a part of the temple, Xiaolin Dragons weren’t allowed a lot of things. Sure, they had privileges but like other monks, they weren’t allowed to have relationships _or_ children.

According to what Wuya heard, that rule was changed later on but even then, no Dragon ever really went through with having a life outside their temple. _But times change_ , Wuya thought. _Why am I surprised; I knew that_.

Noticing that she had been silent for too long, Wuya cleared her throat. “You’re an overachiever.”

Although she’d sounded a little sarcastic, the witch was really anything but that. She fully meant it. All these years put the Fire Dragon at twenty-nine years-old. And oddly enough, Wuya remembered being twenty-nine, no extra zeros in her age.

Back then, she’d counted among her achievements a few things. Mastering magic, building a small faction of loyal followers, and putting a few farming states under her domain. It’d been a career highlight.

Through none of those events could Wuya ever imagine having children too. At some point, she had seen herself with one or two but she’d been unsettled by the idea of childbirth. She never wanted to be in the shoes of any of those travelling women the maids and healers helped give birth at their temple.

“I mean it, you know”, Wuya said, beginning again. “When I was your age, I only thought of taking over the world. But kids—raising them is just…difficult.”

“I’m glad you never had kids”, Kimiko said, appreciatively. “I wouldn’t want to fight your kids too. No offense, but you were too much to handle at times so _imagine_ an army of your kids— _ugly_.”

Smiling, Wuya nodded. It’d been a while since someone was annoyed by her unstoppable, take-over-the-world ambition. It was almost endearing. Upon thinking this, she frowned immediately.

“You said you have a career?”, the witch said, a little stiffly. She had to make the conversation go somewhere else but that was easier said than done. Centuries came and went and she still wasn’t good at small talk. “What…is it?”

Kimiko shrugged, understating what Wuya already imagined to be a pretty big deal considering the glee clear in the warrior’s eyes.

“Well, I just started my own studio so I’m focusing on that. Sometimes I help with my dad’s business, but that doesn’t happen much.”

“And—”

“This is a conversation we can have over tea”, Kimiko said, raising an eyebrow. “Or coffee or alcohol, I don’t care but I need something to keep me awake, so let’s go.”

Scoffing, Wuya followed the Dragon to the tearoom. On their way there, she couldn’t help but wonder how this girl would have dealt with Master Chen and his rules. _She wouldn’t follow them in the slightest_ , Wuya knew. _We would have been great friends_.

As they walked, the witch saw more of the temple, which had pretty much been left unchanged, save for the few additions, since she attended it.

There was the kitchen, stale as ever, and the bathrooms, which everyone fought over in the mornings, no matter how disciplined they were.

That was the Dragons’ room, which Wuya wrinkled her nose at, vaguely remembering all the exaggerated stories Chase and Guan had told her about the room’s nonexistent privileges. And finally—

“These are the apprentice rooms”, Wuya said, voice nearly inaudible.

Theirs were always the plainest rooms, with little to nothing but their sleeping mats and the small desks kept near them. Most apprentices came because they wanted to be Xiaolin monks and so didn’t find a need for personal belongings.

Others, like her, came from families that sent them here because they couldn’t provide for them anymore. The latter were the kind that kept their personal belongings, stubbornly thinking they’d go home one day. That didn’t matter now.

“Yeah, these _are_ the apprentice rooms”, Kimiko said, raising a surprised eyebrow at Wuya. “How do _you_ know, though? You never took a tour before you looted the temple.”

Wuya cleared her throat. “I knew an apprentice who used to live here. They were one of the brats I tolerated.”

Sighing, the witch shook her head and led the way in front of the confused warrior, who hurriedly followed her a minute after.

Why she did that, Wuya couldn’t tell. She didn’t have any fondness for the temple, let alone one of its rooms. And if anything, remembering that room was a fluke. Apprentice rooms were the same at every temple.

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

The Heylin temple was smaller than Wuya expected. She couldn’t see it even when they’d been two hours away.

Despite its size, this temple radiated a kind of power that stopped her in her tracks. After a beat, Wuya remembered what it reminded her of. Seeing the Xiaolin temple for the first time. She’d only been a frightened nine year-old, but she still remembered the awe.

The Xiaolin temple was huge and polished and lit with lanterns, even that late into the night. The gates were heavy and well-guarded and once inside, the vast halls left her feeling safe and comfortable. It was like being in a grandmother’s embrace.

That wasn’t the case here. The Heylin temple was modest in size, about half the propensity of her temple. It had no gates at well, which was an odd choice.

Once inside, Wuya and the other two apprentices with her were ushered into a tea room and told to wait. Never had a seat felt this uncomfortable.

An hour later, a kindly old man walked in and introduced himself. He was Master Yi and he would supervise their stay. If they needed anything or had any questions or complaints, they should go to him.

Out of everything he’d said, the word ‘complaints’ struck Wuya the most. Was it normal for complaints to be voiced here or was it because they were just visitors?

Either way, this couldn’t be what Heylin apprentices did. Master Chen once told her complaints bred disunity and rules existed for a reason.

She was snapped out of her thoughts and into the conversation when Master Yi clapped, once and with meaning.

“Now, here’s the good part”, the middle-aged man said, all too casually. “Everyone will be paired up!”

He left before any of the apprentices could say anything directly to him, but that didn’t stop Wuya anyway.

“That doesn’t sound nearly as good as Master Yi thinks it is”, she whispered to the other apprentice next to her. She did not know how right she’d be.

See, Master Yi’s genius idea came to fruition fifteen minutes later when he came back with the Heylin apprentices. He paired every Xiaolin and Heylin apprentice together, according to a combination he only knew.

Li, a fellow Xiaolin, was paired with a less-than-excited Zeng, while Tan was paired with Zhang. As for her, she was paired with a boy, around her age, who looked just a tad too confident.

The boy looked interesting, that much couldn’t be denied. Although all the Heylin apprentices were dressed in the same blue robes, his seemed to be different. There was symbol sewed on to it that she could not read.

Other than that, the only thing that seemed noteworthy was that he had a big head to match his big ego. _Heavens_ , she thought with disgust. He was grinning at her now.

“Wuya”, Master Yi said, a little excitedly. “This is Dashi.”

“The Heylin Dragon of Water”, the boy added, grinning wider. “We’ll be very good friends.”

The middle-aged man sighed, exasperatedly. “You’re still an apprentice, Dashi.”

Master Yi then led the apprentices out of the room, speaking a little hurriedly about the tour of the temple that Wuya would no longer pay attention to.

She’d just met a Dragon. Again. In her village, she’d heard old women say that those who happened to cross paths with one Dragon would be blessed. She’d crossed paths with three, so that had to mean something by now.

Excitedly, Wuya lagged behind as she thought of Chase and Guan’s reactions to this information. She was so lost in thought, she hadn’t noticed the smirking Dashi at her heels.

After one full week at the Heylin temple, though, Dashi’s presence proved to be unignorable.

Dragon or not, Wuya was beginning to think that murdering Dashi wasn’t going to cause humanity any losses. Even fate and destiny had to agree with her on this one.

Although she’d known boys before and had trained with them, Dashi was by far the most annoying one she’d ever met. Out of everyone here, he was her least favorite. Yes, even worse than that stable-boy.

He’d stared at her throughout breakfast. He’d followed her to the scroll room, though his disinterest in the reading material was evident. Then, he’d pestered her with half a hundred questions at dinner.

Where was her village? What is its name? What about her family—how many siblings did she have? Was her father part of the Xiaolin temple? _When_ did the Xiaolin temple allow women to join? And were they all as pretty as she was?

And that wasn’t even the half of it. Even though he’d been pestering her at all times, Dashi still managed to go to his training and lessons. Wuya could only hope to achieve that level of time-management.

There were a few instances, though, when Wuya could be in Dash-free zones. Like now, in her room, where he couldn’t bother her without permission.

Right on cue, a knock at her door got her attention. After a long day of sifting through Heylin scrolls, Wuya hoped she would fall asleep right away. That had been two hours ago, so that horse was already shot. And she already knew she’d jinxed it.

“Who is it?”

She paused for an answer that never came. Instead, another knock did.

Pushing herself off her mat, Wuya huffed as she moved to the door. This had better be an emergency.

“How can I help— _oh_ ”, she said, stopping her artificial cheery tone. “It’s you.”

In front her, Dashi smiled sheepishly in his sleeping robes. As he heard her greeting, his eyebrows rose amusedly.

“Why are you here?”, Wuya asked, monotonously.

Dashi shrugged. “I have a plan and I need your assistance.”

That made more sense than anything Wuya had thought of in the past minute. She had only been around for a week but Dashi’s reputation of mischief and trickery hadn’t exactly taken that long to make itself known.

“I would like to see what goes on that twisted head of yours, Dashi”, she said, truthfully. “But I don’t want to sully my reputation right now.”

He chuckled. “Sully your reputation? That’s a bit strong. I wasn’t going to set a trick up, but now that you mention it, it’s been a while.”

“Then what did you want?”, Wuya asked. She tried her hardest to not let the curiosity seep into her voice, but it probably did. His smile got toothier.

“I have a plan that I want you to assist me with.”

“Well, what kind of plan is it?”

“A plan to make you like me, of course.”

Wuya couldn’t help but laugh at that. Dashi was so sure of himself, chest puffed and head held high, that it was borderline comical. Unfortunately, her laugh was extremely loud.

“Shush”, the Dragon panicked, eyes widening as he put both hands over her mouth. “You’ll wake the entire temple!”

Her cackles semi-blocked now, Wuya tried to listen as Dashi did as well. It was quiet at first, but then a shuffling that indicated multiple people sent both apprentices into a panic.

Without thinking, Wuya pulled Dashi into her room and slid the doors shut. She ushered him behind the wooden chest, where he crouched, hiding the best he could.

Another knock came at her door, but the apprentice anticipated it this time. She took a few breaths before opening the door.

“Yes, Master Yi?”, she innocently asked. He brought backup, she saw, making note of at least two other masters.

The old man seemed agitated and sleepy. “I’ve been notified that there has been a strange noise coming from this hall. What happened?”

“Nothing, Master”, Wuya said, pulling her best surprised face. “I just returned from the bathroom, but I didn’t notice nor hear anything. It’s not a thief, is it?”

She said that last part with a touch of worry, prompting Master Yi to look at the men behind him. He was fully awake now, realizing the possibility.

“I will leave you to sleep then”, the man said, apologetically. “We’ll make sure that whoever it is hasn’t gotten far. Masters, follow me.”

With that, the men left and Wuya remained in place, watching as they all left earshot. She closed her doors and sat back down on her mat. She almost forgot about Dashi until he decided to remind her of his presence.

“Wow, I almost peed my robes”, the boy said, joining her on the mat as if it wasn’t a big deal. “You are good at pretending, I must say. Maybe you _can_ help me cause mischief after all.”

Wuya gave him a look. “I will help you with nothing, boy. If you hadn’t noticed, the masters almost caught you in my room and I know this is just as bad in your temple as it is in mine.”

At least, he had the decency to be ashamed. She couldn’t help but smirk as he looked downwards at his hands, ears reddening. After a minute, she was surprised at his sincerity, but after five, Wuya thought something might be wrong.

She pushed his shoulder lightly, but he still didn’t lift his head. His shoulders were vibrating, though. He was laughing, she realized.

“You sounded like Grandmaster Hui”, Dashi said, wheezing. “He’s always berating me for something or the other but _wow_ , he was never this harsh!”

Wuya seethed. “I’m serious.”

“Yes, but we could have explained everything, if we had to”, Dashi said, sobering up. “It’s not like we were on your mat—”

“Stop that sentence”, she said, sharply. “I don’t care that you have a higher rank than mine. They might have not listened.”

Dashi raised an eyebrow. “We’re both apprentices actually. Why would you say this?”

When Wuya said nothing, embarrassed by the unprompted confession, Dashi understood.

“Oh”, he said. “That’s how things are in your temple. Dragons have privileges?”

“That’s how things are _everywhere_ , Dashi”, she said, scoffing. “I know this because I have seen it with my own eyes.”

The boy patted her shoulder sympathetically. “Well, that’s not how we do things in the Heylin temple, don’t worry. We’re all equal here.”

That gave her little comfort, but she smiled anyway. He was trying so maybe she had to.

“I don’t want to offend you”, Dashi said a minute later, already offending her. “But you seemed to know what you were doing a while ago. I’m guessing you’ve done this whole hiding thing before?”

Wuya rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to give you the satisfaction of knowing your assumptions are right.”

She paused, sighing heavily. “But yes, I’ve hidden a boy in my room before. A friend. We were looking at a scroll we had snuck out of the scroll room, a _secret_ scroll.”

“And what’s that friend like?”, Dashi asked, curiously. He didn’t seem to find the secret scroll interesting.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just making conversation”, the boy said, shrugging. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

Shrugging, Wuya made a vague gesture. “It’s okay. His name is Chase—”

“What kind of name is that?”

“I don’t know, ask his father. Don’t interrupt me.”

Glaring at her companion, Wuya continued. “Anyway, his name is Chase Young and his dad is a master at the temple—before you ask, his father had him _before_ he took the oath. And Chase’s a Dragon too, so that’s a whole thing—”

“I’m sorry, I know you said not to interrupt”, Dashi said. “But he’s a Dragon?”

“A Fire Dragon, yes”, she said, understanding his curiosity.

“Wow”, the boy said. “Sometimes, it’s easy to think you’re the only one in the world until you actually know you’re not. A Dragon—are there others?”

Wuya nodded. “There’s also an Earth Dragon, Guan. They’re both good friends of mine, actually.”

Nodding, Dashi tried to manage his surprised face as he crossed his legs and uncrossed them again. He seemed to remember something funny as he chuckled.

“You’re not one of those Dragon Hunters, are you?”, he asked, smirking.

She blanched at the thought. “Heavens, _no_. I have no interest in Dragons _or_ their powers _or_ Dragon-spawn. I’m _just_ friends with them.”

Something about this assumption rubbed Wuya the wrong way.

She thought she was making her first friend in the Heylin temple but he went and accused her of being one of those people notorious for following Dragons around. They were immoral and were shunned by polite society in most villages, but that didn’t stop the boy running his mouth.

“I’m sorry”, he said, sincerely this time. “I thought it was funny in my head.”

Wuya stared at him. “It wasn’t.”

“I know”, Dashi agreed, nodding. “I will choose my words more carefully around you. It’s the least a friend could do, right?”

So, they were friends now? Despite herself, Wuya smiled. She wouldn’t mind making a friend.

“That’s the first correct thing you’ve said, Dragon.”

“Yeah”, Dashi said, smiling. A few seconds later, he got another one of those curious looks, though he seemed trying to bite it back.

Wuya scoffed. “You can ask me things, I won’t mind. Just word them better.”

“Fine”, the boy said, exhaling relief. “Do you have many women at your temple or are you the first?”

“Again with this—”

“It’s just, I’m really curious. You’ve seen my temple—there aren’t many women here. We have the maids and the cooks, yes, but no female monks.”

“Well, _we_ have them”, Wuya said, bragging with all her might. “There aren’t a lot of us there but there are a few women in the temple who aren’t cooks and maids.”

Dashi tilted his head. “And you learn all that we learn?”

“I don’t know about what you learn”, she said, shrugging. “But, yes, we’re all taught the same way in the Xiaolin temple.”

“So, you go on missions too?”

“Well”, Wuya began, drawing out the word. “Not really. Master Chen says it’s because I’m still young but Tan gets to go on missions even though he’s my age and _very_ incompetent, so I don’t think I’ll ever go.”

“And you’re okay with that?”, Dashi asked.

“More or less. I would still have a lot to do at the temple”, she said. “I’d teach the newer apprentices, copy and keep the scrolls, I’d help with the herb gardens, tend to the—”

“So, basically”, the young Dragon said. “You’re going to be a mother to a hundred monks?”

Wuya gave him a look. She never considered it that way, since that was what all the other monks who didn’t go on mission did. “Maybe so.”

“I don’t mean anything by this, but I just thought you’d want to do more, like go on missions. You seem talented, like you’re meant for something greater, you know.”

“You could be right.”

“Ye—”

“And you could be wrong”, Wuya said, cutting him off. “I don’t know why you came to your temple but I went to mine because I had no other place to go. It became my home even though the year I was sent there was one of the worst harvest years.”

A pause. “So, I don’t care about what my role is as long as I _have_ a role. And I want that role because I want to do something for my home.”

Another pause. “And a lot of the other monks would have the exact same duties, so that shows what you know!”

There was another pause before Dashi cleared his throat and nodded. She’d later find out he understood her sentiment more than he originally let on.

“I’m sorry. I understand”, the young Dragon said. “It’s good to have a home.”


	3. Magic and Tools of God

_Present day_

“—so I told my father that it’s time I became my own person”, Kimiko was saying, waving her glass-holding hand. “Not someone’s little girl, not someone’s Fire Dragon—just me. And he _listened_!”

She paused to take a drink, as Wuya contemplated ever agreeing to come here.

“Anyway, so—”

Before the woman could continue, someone interrupted by opening the door to the tearoom. Wuya was already thankful even before she saw who it was.

“Oh, hi Wuya, you’re here early”, Omi began, dressed in red formal getup that was nothing short of stunning. Taking a breath, he set sights on his friend. “Kimiko, we need your help with something.”

“I’m in the middle of a hag party”, Kimiko said, annoyedly. “Is it important?”

Omi sighed. “Your daughter’s tearing down the set-pieces.”

“She’s _what_ ”, the angry woman said, teeth already grit. “And why did no one stop her—never mind, hold this.”

The minute Kimiko briskly stomped out of the room, Omi finished the rest of the drink she’d handed him. Realizing what it was, he winced.

“ _Wow_ , this is too strong for noon”, Omi said before giving Wuya a look. “Uh, are you having fun?”

The witch only smirked. “There is no emergency, is there?”

“If you count Kimiko not sleeping and slowly slipping off the edge”, Omi began. “Yes, there is. Crisis is now being averted.”

He paused, sighing. “I told her not to stretch herself thin for this, but she ignored me because this is how she gets when she organizes…well, anything, really.”

“It’s not surprising”, Wuya offered, after taking a sip of her tea. “Fire Dragons tend to be perfectionists.”

Omi tilted his head. “And you’ve seen a lot of them, I’m guessing. _Please_ tell me they age out of it.”

“It’s a working progress”, the witch said after a pause. A certain dragon overlord who meticulously organized his lair to the point where he would hiss at a moved _pebble_ begged to differ. “Maybe your friend will be different.”

“I hope so”, the Water Dragon said. “Anyway, you can sit here until everything starts.”

Attempting a smile, Wuya nodded at him. Instead of leaving, as his tone suggested, Omi sat next to her got one terracotta cup for himself too. Without asking what kind of tea was in the pot, he poured anyway.

“Your robes look stunning”, Wuya said, deigning to compliment.

Omi smiled, a little uncertainly. “Thank you.”

“You’re nervous”, the witch now said, crossing her arms.

He nodded. “That, I am.”

_He’s not even denying it_ , Wuya thought as she raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, she remembered one of her old curiosities.

“It says Jermaine Lee on the invitation next to your name. Is it the same—”

“The Jermaine who was a one-time Heylin apprentice?”, Omi continued, not missing a beat. He smiled softly before adding, “Yes, the very same one. Like I said before, I love him.”

Catching sight of Wuya’s amused smile, he dropped his smile and scoffed. “I’m a grown man, I can say things like that and fully mean them.”

“If you think someone’s mocking you when they’re not”, she began, still smiling wryly. “You’ll only spoil your own fun, Dragon.”

Right as she said that, Wuya winced. Something about that sentence felt too familiar. She’d said that before, except the face looking back at her wasn’t Omi’s. It belonged to another Dragon, one who had been her friend then.

_Well, if there was such a thing as crying over spilled milk_ , Wuya thought. This was about sixteen-hundred years too late. She cleared her throat.

“You must have gotten really rusty while I was gone”, the witch began. “I know Chase had stopped going after you, personally, for some time, so I take it you were having a grand old time at your temple.”

“I’m not going to pretend like it wasn’t a great time without any of you around”, Omi said with a chuckle. “But honestly, this is the first time any of us has been back here in a while. It’s been—yeah, it’s been a time.”

_Any of us_ , Wuya repeated in her head. That couldn’t be good. “You all left the temple? Unprotected?”

“It’s not unprotected”, the soon-to-be-married man said, gesturing like it was obvious. “There are monks here everywhere and I heard we’ll have new apprentices coming in soon.”

A pause. “Everyone protects the temple. And we still do, too. It’s just, we all do it on our own time, according to how our lives are now.”

“And what’s that like, your life?”

“It’s fun, I guess. I have a job but it’s not in an office—I’m a photographer, I guess, and I’m living in New York now. Sometimes, we visit Clay for holidays.”

A pause. This time he seemed to be talking to himself rather than to her. “I’m happy but I’m not going to lie. Sometimes, I miss being a monk. Things were easier then.”

Nodding, Wuya silently agreed. He was right. Things were easier when she was only a monk.

“Hey, Wuya”, Omi began, after taking a breath. “You came to my wedding.”

“Didn’t we establish that?”, Wuya asked. “Doesn’t mortal Alzheimer’s start when you’re much older than this?”

“No, we did establish it, it’s just…so you’re a Heylin witch, like the _worst_ Heylin witch, right?”

If he was having second thoughts, this was not the time to announce them. _Jack would have acted like his mother and said we RSVPed_. Wuya scoffed. “You said that didn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t”, Omi agreed. “To me. The elders are a different story, though, so you’ve been assigned an usher of sorts.”

Someone to keep her in check in case she tried to steal or destroy, Wuya knew, was what the Xiaolin runt meant. Although she still didn’t have her magic back, the witch knew that wouldn’t be a task given to a mere fighting monk.

With Omi preparing for everything and Kimiko out of commission, Wuya had already predicted who it was. Smiling now, she nodded at Omi, finally agreeing to his unasked question. It was about time she reunited with her one-time apprentice.

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

Three weeks into her Heylin exchange, Wuya discovered she had a hidden talent no one could have predicted. Mahjong.

It might not have seemed like a big victory—or a victory at all if Dashi had any say—but Wuya had no idea she’d be that good at the game. Chase had always been too proud to teach her, just in case she was better than he was, and Guan was sadly an incompetent instructor who yelled instead of teaching.

Master Ping, however, was a great teacher. And now, she was defeating him in their third consecutive game over tea. All in all making for the best day she’d spent since she’d gotten to this temple.

The minute she’d thought that, a monk knocked and interrupted the start of their fourth game.

“I’m sorry, Master”, the monk said, after a bow. “But Master Yi wants to meet with the female Xiaolin apprentice.”

Holding back a scoff, Wuya nodded and stood up. “My name’s Wuya. I’m sorry, Master Ping. I’ll come to win later.”

Following the Heylin apprentice all the way back to the empty room where Master Yi was, Wuya tried to think just what could the Heylin teacher want from her. So far, she hadn’t stepped a toe out of line.

She’d only read the scrolls she was meant to read, never trying to sneak a secret scroll once, and she’d kept up with the daily training. Still, Wuya couldn’t shake the nervousness off.

At the Xiaolin temple, she knew she’d be punished with extra chores or training whenever she did something wrong. And if she hadn’t done something wrong, well, Master Young tried to find an excuse anyway. He was always punishing her for being friends with his son.

“Wuya”, Master Yi said, breaking off her train of thought. “You’re finally here.”

A pause. “Do you know _why_ you’re here?”

“Well, I’m about to know”, Wuya said, trying for a joke. “And I’m apologizing in advance, just in case I broke a rule.”

Master Yi’s eyebrows went into his forehead. “A broken rule? No, you’re here because I’ve finally figured it out.”

Noticing Wuya’s confusion, the elder sighed and gestured to take a seat on a futon. She did and he began.

“When you and your fellow Xiaolin apprentices arrived here”, Master Yi said. “I noticed something about you three, something special. And I couldn’t tell what it was at first but slowly I started to understand.”

A pause. “The more I looked into it, I’ve grown more certain that this aura was coming from you. I see something in _you_ , Wuya.”

_Well_ , Wuya thought. _That couldn’t be good_. Over her many years at the temple, overnight visitors and travelers would tell her they saw something in her. Something that meant she could work in a boarding house or a farm. Something that meant work that meant leaving home.

But Master Yi didn’t seem the type to have ulterior motives. “What—what is it then?”

“Magic”, the old man said, casually like this was normal. “You have magic in your blood, Wuya.”

Wuya blanched. “I’m _not_ a witch. I can’t be and I don’t know why you’d be suggesting that. It’s just—”

“It’s just what?”, Master Yi interrupted, bemusedly. “Why are you talking like magic is an evil thing, young one?”

At this, Wuya raised an eyebrow. What was Master Yi trying? If this was a test, then he’d just given away the answer.

“Because it is”, she said, confident in her answer. “Magic is used to destroy, to ravage and kill, and those who use magic use it to meet their own selfish needs.”

Master Yi sighed, disappointedly. “And here I thought you had an open mind. You failed, Wuya.”

“So, this was a test?”

“And you knew it was. You just couldn’t see the question. Now, please, leave.”

Although he’d stopped looking at her, signaling that he was done with the conversation, Wuya was not having any of it. She remained seated and remained looking at the old man.

He was being unclear and dubious on purpose. He’d tricked her and then he had the audacity to be disappointed with her.

While normally that wouldn’t have meant a thing to her, with it being two weeks till she was back home and all, Wuya didn’t like Master Yi’s reaction. And she didn’t like being treated like she was stupid.

“I’m not leaving”, Wuya said, simply. “I want to know what you mean, what you were talking about. Why would you ask me that question about magic? You know how Xiaolin sees magic.”

Master Yi nodded. “And must _you_ see it the same way?”

After a pause, he added. “Xiaolin and Heylin might seem as different as night and day to you, but it wasn’t always like this. We were the same. Exactly the same. Only one day, our predecessors kept an open mind when Xiaolin elders didn’t.”

Another pause. “You said magic is used to destroy. Used to kill. That it’s selfish.”

Looking Wuya in the eye for a moment, Master Yi continued.

“Magic also breathes life, Wuya. It creates and builds and grows even more so than it destroys. Some of the most wonderful things in existence—things that lifted our people from the ground have been made of magic.”

A pause “And yet, what image comes to mind first? That magic helps or that it hurts?”

Finding her voice, Wuya managed to push out, “The second one, Master Yi.”

“Exactly, that’s the problem. All I needed was to see whether or not you understood because of your gift, but it’s clear you’re not ready.”

“I am”, Wuya said, not appreciating the tone.

Master Yi sighed. “I’m serious, child.”

“So am I”, she insisted. “I want to learn, I want to keep an open mind.”

“Wuya—”

“If you don’t want to help me because of your misplaced judgement then fine, I’ll do it myself—I can learn on my own and—”

“Wuya”, Master Yi said, voice finally loud enough to drown out the girl. “I will teach you, but like you said, you’ll have to keep an open mind. Can you really do that?”

A little embarrassed, Wuya coughed and bowed her head. “Yes, Master Yi. Thank you.”

Naturally, this wasn’t the only setback in Wuya’s magic-learning journey. Another was that she only had two weeks left to have the few lessons she could with Master Yi. The first of those they’d spent on literature alone.

“I want to get to the actual magic”, Wuya was telling Dashi, one night by the koi pond. “The more Master Yi teaches me, the more I really feel it in my bones, in my hands—it’s like every part of me wants to use magic _now_.”

Dashi nodded understandingly. “It starts out that way, like an itch you want to scratch but can’t scratch at the same time.”

A pause. “I’m happy to see that someone else has talent for magic here—most people have it buried deep, deep down, you know. They can’t bring it out anymore.”

“Right”, Wuya automatically said, though her mind was elsewhere. He was right; this was peculiar.

Master Yi had been ecstatic while teaching her because, according to him, she was a natural. That didn’t make sense, considering he hadn’t let her use actual magic so far. But even when she mentioned this, Master Yi maintained his position. That magic was her natural talent and that she’d use it well when it was time.

But what if he was wrong? Wuya had suspected this might be the case ever since she learned more about magic and how it translated into the real world.

So far, all the readings mentioned that humans were once one with magic until they’d start rejecting it centuries ago. Following their leaders and elders, the people suppressed their magic and referred to it as demonic. And eventually this hard work paid off and magic was no longer accessible.

No, magic didn’t recognize human beings anymore. Even those who tried and tried rarely succeeded unless they were especially gifted. Of course, though, things weren’t the same for all humans.

Those lucky enough to be Dragons were less closed off to magic than their counterparts. But only by a margin that not everyone crossed.

“You may not be a Dragon, Wuya”, she remembered Master Yi saying. “But you’re a natural—magic comes easy to you; don’t waste that.”

“Hey”, Dashi said, suddenly peering into her face out of the blue. “Where did you go? I was talking about something important here.”

_It wasn’t_ , Wuya thought but she shook her head either way. “Nothing, I was just thinking.”

“I know. What about?”

“If I’m good enough to connect with my magic”, Wuya said, forcing out that last bit a little too quickly. “I might fail.”

Dashi was silent before cracking a smile. “You won’t.”

“Dashi—”

“No, you won’t”, the Water Dragon insisted. “Do you know how many people Master Yi agrees to teach magic to? Not many. Even those who travel across oceans to get here don’t make it to his classes.”

Sighing again, Wuya nodded and wracked her brain for something else to talk about. Before she could do that, though, Dashi gave her a meaningful look.

“I have an idea”, he said, instantly provoking anxiety. “What if I show you the magic I’m practicing?”

“How is that going to help me?”

“You’re going to see that you have nothing to worry about so you can be a little grateful.”

Noticing her angry confusion, Dashi added with a sigh.

“Look, when I first asked Master Yi to teach me magic”, he began. “He was not on board at all—and I mean _not at all_. He told me I didn’t have a magical bone in my body and that he could tell because he’d taught magic for generations.”

He paused, giving her a moment to laugh. “Anyway, I didn’t stop pestering him about it—”

“Because you can’t take a hint?”, Wuya asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

Dashi glared. “Because I’m a dedicated student. And eventually, Master Yi relented and taught me the basics of magic.”

“Only the basics?”, she asked. “Did you stop your lessons?”

“No, he stopped giving me lessons because he said I wasn’t worth teaching”, the boy admitted, embarrassedly. “But I didn’t—I didn’t stop practicing.”

Wuya sighed. “So your point is?”

“So, my point is”, Dashi said. “That you have nothing to worry about. Master Yi said I was a disaster and I managed to create wonderful things. Imagine what a ‘natural talent’ would do.”

Looking the Dragon in the eye, Wuya discovered, to her shock, that he wasn’t joking. Not like he usually did. No, he had serious expression on and his tone was earnest.

She didn’t know what she felt about this new side of Dashi, except that it made her not feel bad about letting him stick around. _No, not the time_. She cleared her throat.

“Well, can you show me the creations you mentioned?”, Wuya said. “The things you practiced making. Just so I can see for myself.”

Seemingly returning to normal, Dashi smirked. “Ah, you want to bask in the great Heylin Dragon’s glory. Well, I can’t deny you that.”

As she rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time, he fished for something in his pockets. “You’re lucky I have it on me today.”

Out of his pocket, Dashi took out a rhombus-shaped brown pendant, one that looked almost as plain as every necklace pendant Wuya had ever seen. The only thing that made it different, though, was the red ruby in its center.

“That’s a nice touch”, Wuya said, gesturing to the ruby.

Dashi nodded. “I know. This is one of the few things I have left from my mother. Well, that and my beautiful, beautiful eyes.”

“And what does it do?”, she asked, scoffing. “It doesn’t seem like much.”

He shrugged. “That’s what it looks like to you, mere mortal. But this one’s supposed to shoot lightning.”

“Lightning?”

“ _Yes_! It can break targets and injure beasts—it’s a perfect fighting weapon.”

Wuya took the pendant when Dashi offered it. “How do I use it?”

“Well, you’re supposed to point it at your target”, Dashi explained. “And then you invoke its powers by using its name.”

“What’s its name then?”

“The Eye of Dashi.”

“How original”, Wuya quipped, rolling her eyes. “You named it after yourself. Really, Dashi?”

At that, Dashi snorted. “Have you read any of our scrolls, Wuya? Masters name things after themselves all the time. Why can’t I do it?”

Deciding to have this fight another time, Wuya waved him off and pointed the Eye at a discarded wooden block near them. Inhaling sharply, she focused before whispering the pendant’s name.

Wincing lightly, Wuya dropped the Eye. This was not the reaction she was expecting.

“Your necklace just electrocuted me!”

“I know, I know”, Dashi said, grumpily. “It’s a working progress. But my point stands—this is rookie magic, yours will be greater.”

Wuya sighed and picked the pendant off the ground. Frowning, she kept her eyes at the pendant and its red ruby. Something was not right, as she’d just felt, but was it?

For some reason, Wuya felt like she could know what was wrong if she concentrated hard enough. Focusing her _chi_ now, she shut her eyes and reworked the energy she felt in the pendant.

Master Yi had said that she’d have to be actively practicing magic for at least one month before she begin to rework energy but it couldn’t hurt to try, right? It wasn’t like this pendant needed that much work anyway.

After hearing a click—in real life or in her mind, she didn’t know—Wuya opened her eyes.

“Watch this”, she said, excitedly. Something in her body, in the tips of her fingers, felt almost giddy as she aimed the object again. “Eye of Dashi.”

Though Dashi himself looked thoroughly unamused, his eyes quickly widened when he saw what happened after she invoked the pendant.

The Eye on Dashi, not just a faulty pendant anymore, had shot real pure lightning at the wooden block a few feet away. A wooden block that was now broken into small charred pieces with smoke still rising.

Turning to Dashi, Wuya smiled. “I fixed your magical necklace! _I_ did that—can you believe it, Dashi?!”

Although he’d heard her, loud and clear, Dashi couldn’t tear his eyes off the wooden block. Wuya, who hadn’t used magic in real life once before now, had fixed the Eye he’d been working on for months. At the snap of a finger, no less.

Dashi masked his envy with a smile. “I can. You _are_ a natural.”

A pause. “You’re wrong, though. That’s not some magic necklace anymore; it’s a tool of god—a _Shen Gong Wu_.”

Sharing a look of glee with the apprentice Dragon, Wuya laughed and jumped for joy. If it felt that good to use little magic, how would using a lot of it feel?

As she cheered and jumped and as the bitter boy swallowed his pride, neither of them noticed something crucial. The wind was moving rather heavily, its breezes rustling to make the air cooler.

Those breezes were particularly pronounced around Wuya, rustling and almost howling like they wanted the apprentice to notice them, to control them as they made her red hair dance like fire.


	4. Tearoom Realizations and An Old Apprentice

_Present day_

In retrospect, Wuya didn’t know what she’d expected of her former one-time apprentice. All she knew was that she didn’t expected to be uncomfortable.

Though she’d told Omi she was willing to accept glorified security—an usher, as he’d called it—and knew who would be given the job, the Heylin witch hadn’t considered the fact that the Wind Dragon had grown up, much like the others did.

He didn’t look all that different, if she really considered it. Only a little taller with a different hairstyle and a beard. He’d been in the tearoom for about two minutes, sitting silently and scrolling on his phone.

_Well_ , Wuya thought, huffing, she had to acknowledge him at some point. “You look well.”

“So do you”, Raimundo said, looking up from his phone. “Comas really work for you. You don’t look hideous.”

“I’m immortal”, she said, rolling her eyes. She wasn’t going to correct them anymore. “It comes with the territory.”

With neither having much else to say, the tearoom went silent for a while and Raimundo looked at his phone again. Wuya sighed and poured herself more tea, gradually making herself grow resigned with her disappointment.

She didn’t know why she’d thought it, but somehow, she did think this was one Dragon she wouldn’t feel awkward making small talk with.

A long time ago, Wuya had listened to Raimundo prattle about little trivialities while she brought the world to its knees with a snap of her fingers.

Although she had been living with (or haunting, sources varied) Jack Spicer for a full year before, the witch hadn’t caught up with modern human culture as much as she did that one week when she had an actual apprentice.

Even if it mostly entailed weird internet jokes, music, sports, and longwinded tirades about his family.

Taking a sip of her tea, Wuya looked back to the man in the suit again. He was wearing a pink tie and had an unnoticed cartoon sticker on his sleeve. _At least figuring out his date isn’t a mystery_.

“Is this the first wedding?”, she finally managed to ask, unable to help her curiosity and need for conversation. She supposed she already knew the answer.

Raimundo barely looked up. “No. I’ve been to, like, twenty-three weddings before I finished high school.”

“No”, Wuya said, rolling her eyes. _He’s not getting it_. “I meant for you four—is this the first?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Like, Clay came close two years ago but Omi’s the one that actually went for it first—but hey, weirder things have happened”, he answered with a shrug.

_So_ , Wuya thought, _he didn’t get the reference_. Before she could attempt another chance at the conversation, though, Raimundo started to laugh as if only understanding the joke just now.

“I _remember_ ”, he said, nodding as he laughed. “I told you once that by the time I’m thirty I’d probably be on my third divorce like my Tio Cláudio.”

Chuckling again, he added. “Eh, guess I missed that train.”

“You may still have some time”, Wuya said, jokingly. “You’re twenty-nine, you can get there.”

Raimundo gave her a faux-glare. “Twenty-eight; my birthday is in October. Also, I happen to have something good going right now so I wouldn’t wanna ruin it.”

“Kimiko?”

“Did the tie give it away?”, he asked, feigning annoyance. “Because if it’s the tie, Clay’s wearing the same one too.”

Noticing the witch’s quirked eyebrow, he added. “It’s _not_ a dress code, I swear, it just happened that way.”

_Sure, it wasn’t_ , Wuya thought. _If Jack was here, he’d have argued up a storm about being notified at least_. That didn’t really matter.

“I don’t care about that”, she lied. “I knew it was Kimiko because of _that_ , actually. You have kids together, right?”

“Yes”, Raimundo said, quickly removing the sticker off his sleeve and checking the rest of his suit for damages. “Iolanda and Ryo. And they both keep _getting_ these little stickers somehow—like I swear I hid them—the _fuck_?”

A pause. “Also, yes, _I_ named the second one. It was a pun. You know, because I’m from Rio and in Japanese, Ryo apparently means—”

“Dragon”, Wuya said, amusedly. It didn’t take a genius to see how the Wind Dragon’s thought process worked that one out. “Yes, I happen to know that.”

She raised an eyebrow now. “It’s strange. Seeing all this, I’d have expected you two to be married.”

“Same”, Raimundo said, chuckling. Seeing the witch’s face, he explained, “Oh, right—her family kinda still think I’m in it for the money because I made too many jokes.”

He paused, a little pensively, before smiling. “Life, you know. Uh, so guess how many jobs I have.”

“You have jobs, plural?”, Wuya asked, allowing him to change the subject.

“I know, I was surprised too—so, guess.”

“Two?”, she guessed.

“You’re not fun at this”, Raimundo grumbled, the grin quickly falling. “But yeah, two. It used to be three but, you know, things are more stable now.”

A pause. “Anyway, so I’m a radio host now—like a _real_ radio host, I have my own show and everything.”

“You’ve come a long way, then”, Wuya said, mouth corners tugging upwards instinctively.

That one week he was her apprentice, Raimundo had pleaded with her to install an announcement-system in her citadel—the end result was more of his prattling, only louder.

“And the other job?”

“I draw comic-books”, Raimundo said, already expecting the question. “Like a nerd.”

Wuya raised an eyebrow. “Comic-books…like the funny little drawings you once showed me?”

“Yeah, the Miles Morales ones”, he said, grinning. “Except mine is about this ragtag team of elemental-powered outcasts.”

“What an original concept”, the witch said, chuckling despite herself.

“ _Shut_ _up_ ”, the Dragon said, whiningly. “But yeah, art imitates life or whatever…you know, uh, my first villain was like this ancient witch. Powerful but she was kinda trapped in this puzzle-box and shit.”

“Does she eventually break free and rule the world?”

“No—I mean, she tries that at first. When I first ‘came up’ with that, my editors told me I needed to get into her character more, do something unpredictable.”

Subtlety, Wuya thought as she sighed, was never Raimundo’s strongest suit. Although he’d gotten more relaxed as he talked to her, she could tell he’d wanted to try something.

“And what did you come up with then?”

“The witch eventually joins the ragtag team”, Raimundo said, shrugging. “She deals with her issues and she discovers she can’t let her past trap her in evil.”

As Wuya’s scowl formed at the prospect of her invitation being a hidden ruse, he hurriedly added.

“I’m not trying to do anything, I’m _really_ not…I kinda based that part on me, actually, like the whole face-heel-face turn.”

“Really? Even the witchcraft part?”, Wuya asked, raising an eyebrow.

Raimundo sighed. “Yeah. I mean, you taught me _some_ magic, didn’t you? Sure, I based her on you but that’s only because…well, you’re kinda badass. Like, you almost killed us _several_ times.”

_So_ , Wuya thought as she nodded. He didn’t know about her own past. Admittedly relieved now, the witch didn’t even know why she was ever worried.

If any records remained of her time as an apprentice here, they’d be hard to decipher and if they were decipherable, no one would find anything except her name.

Sighing, she took another sip of her tea before taking another look at the grownup warrior going back to his phone again.

Years ago, Wuya had thought she’d found a long-time apprentice when she managed to sway Raimundo to her cause, even when she knew the risk factor.

And after he’d realized he wasn’t nearly as Heylin as he was Xiaolin and _did_ turn on her, she’d let it happen for the sake of her own curiosity. She needed to see how the Xiaolin temple would react.

She’d been re-trapped in that cursed puzzle-box, yes, but that didn’t stop her from getting all the information from Katnappe later. And the girl told her the temple accepted Raimundo back. Sure, they hadn’t trusted him all at once but eventually they did.

Eventually, they forgot about him trying on a new philosophy. Eventually, they forgot about him learning and then using magic. Eventually, they let him lead the Dragons even when though wind wasn’t even a Wu Xing element.

And that was, in all honesty, more than they’d ever done for her. Slowly, Wuya realized what the discomfort she’d been feeling was. Envy.

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

On the day the Xiaolin apprentices returned to their original temple, Master Chen received them with a calm demeanor that exuded as much as reproach as it did disappointment at the three apprentices who dared consider the Heylin temple, if for one second.

That much, was predictable. Another thing that was predictable was how his still face only moved in a quiet approval when it rested on Dashi’s face.

Naturally, Wuya had expected this. On some level, Dashi himself had to have predicted this as well, from what she’d told him.

After the five weeks in the Exchange were over, the Heylin temple threw the three visiting Xiaolin apprentices a feast. Nothing excessive, by any means, though.

There’d been a significant addition to their dish selection and a few formalities were instated, with speeches and all, but it was, more or less, a quiet affair. And all through it, Wuya tried to force herself to eat and smile because she was going _home_ and there was no need to feel the dread she’d felt coiling at the bottom of her stomach.

She would miss her lessons with Master Yi, but like the old man said, she could always write him.

She would _not_ miss Dashi, who’d decided to go ahead with his own Exchange at her temple, and did not stop sulking on their last night at the Heylin temple. Most of all, though, Wuya would probably miss the Mahjong games with Master Ping the most.

They started to ride for the Xiaolin temple the very next day and arrived there three days later. By that time, Dashi had finally stopped moping and Wuya, too, had made a decision about what she’d tell the elders about her newfound magical talents. Exactly nothing.

Although she’d been raised to know that there was no good in lying, Wuya supposed that not offering information readily wasn’t the same thing.

None of her teachers and elders would ask about her using magic, simply because the Xiaolin shunned magic and didn’t consider the possibility of any of their students learning it. And if no one asked, then why would she bring it up herself?

And now, as she bowed to Master Chen, Wuya saw her non-lie work. The old teacher didn’t even bother to ask about what she’d learned or discovered while at the Heylin temple. Of course, as she would discover barely a day later, only one thing currently interested Master Chen.

“I heard from Li and Tan that you’ve made good friends with the Water Dragon”, the old man began, his voice calm. “Can I ask why, Wuya?”

Wuya nodded, already expecting the question. It had escaped exactly no one’s attention that she and Dashi were always around each other.

They’d spend the remaining two weeks at the Heylin temple joint at the hip because they were trying to fix as many of Dashi’s Shen Gong Wu as they could—not like anyone knew, of course. Wuya hated to think what everyone assumed.

“Master Yi, the head of the Heylin temple”, she said. “He paired each Xiaolin apprentice with a Heylin apprentice.”

Master Chen nodded, though his lips pursed. “I see. And how long has Dashi been an apprentice?”

“I’m not sure. I think almost a year.”

“So, he’s ready to become Wudai.”

A pause. “Wuya, I believe you know the purpose of this conversation, so I cannot pretend to ignore it—a Dragon being Heylin is simply unheard of.”

“Yes, I think he’s the first Dragon to be trained at the Heylin temple, Master Chen”, Wuya said. She did not know how any of that was her business but it seemed like it was about to be.

“Well, you have to agree”, Master Chen said, matter-of-factly. “It’s unnatural.”

“I—”

“We need to make Dashi come home”, the old man said. “We need to make him see the light and join the Xiaolin temple.”

Even though she was Xiaolin, Wuya didn’t like Master Chen’s tone. Dashi _did_ have a home, even if it wasn’t up to the elders’ standards. Dashi had a home that took him in when he was orphaned and had no one. And Master Chen didn’t care for that.

Now, more than ever, she remembered Master Yi’s words about the Xiaolin’s ultimate mistake—failing to tolerate and keep an open mind.

Still, Wuya was no idiot. She wasn’t going to protest this now. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to convince Dashi to join us”, the old man said. “Do what you must.”

And do what she must, Wuya did. She didn’t wait a single day before she asked a lounging Dashi for a word outside. Naturally curious, the Dragon left his fellow Heylin apprentices and followed.

“Master Chen wants you to stay here”, she said immediately, once outside the meditation hall. “He wants you to finish your training here.”

Dashi shrugged. “Okay.”

Narrowing her eyes, Wuya crossed her arms. “No, _not_ okay. He wants to force you to stay here, Dashi.”

At that, Dashi did one thing she’d never seen coming. He laughed, one chuckle escaping him at first before he couldn’t help it at all.

“I didn’t think you were _that_ funny, Wuya”, Dashi said, mouth still cracked in a smile. “No one can force me to do anything. Not even Master Yi could—”

“They’ll try their best to trick you into staying, then”, Wuya interjected. Did he _not_ understand their elders yet? “They’ll give you things and they’ll give you privileges you won’t ever imagine, Dashi.”

With his expression unchanged, she could not see whether he understood her or not. He had to understand her. The Xiaolin temple wasn’t Dashi’s fit, she knew. He needed the freedom he’d had at the Heylin temple—the freedom no one had here. Chase and Guan were testament enough.

She sighed. “You have to be careful—don’t let them force you _or_ trick you into anything you don’t want.”

And although he’d nodded, although he’d pretended he understood what she was saying, Dashi still indulged Master Chen’s mind games, always while throwing a knowing look her way.

He still accepted being given his own room, away from other apprentices. He still accepted being seated with the high-ranking monks rather than with everyone else at dinner. And he still, largely, accepted their gifts—and there were a lot of those.

“When it hatches”, Dashi said one day, cradling a dragon’s egg as they walked the length of the courtyard. “I’m gonna name it Dojo.”

Ignoring the sharp looks they were getting from Guan and Chase, Wuya kept her focus on the egg, green and red with an odd glow about it. It was only Dashi’s _second_ week into the Exchange and they got him a dragon’s egg.

A _real_ dragon’s egg from Dragon Island, a place where no human supposedly set foot. Compared to this, Chase and Guan having their own bathroom and extra sleeping hour didn’t seem so lavish.

“Dojo?”

“Yes”, Dashi nodded. “It has to be a formidable name for a formidable temple guardian, don’t you think?”

Wuya tried to keep her face still. Master Chen had told Dashi that they only gave him the egg so this dragon would grow to protect Dashi’s temple, an obvious lie to hide an obvious ploy. And even though Dashi knew it was a ploy, he still played along.

“I’m not stupid, Wuya”, Dashi said now, much like he said whenever he unlocked a new privilege. “But would it be too bad to let things stay this way for a while? At least until I have to go back home and be like everyone else.”

Wuya huffed but said nothing. Would it be bad to let this go on? Well, she thought rather angrily, what did he think?

Ever since Dashi set foot in the Xiaolin temple, Wuya was ‘allowed’ to forego class to spend time with him—aka Master Chen’s foolproof plan to trap him here—and didn’t have much time to practice everything Master Yi told her.

It was Dashi time all day, every day. And no one appreciated it, least of all Chase Young.

“You have no manners at all”, Chase told her when he stopped her after she left the kitchen the other day. “Ever since you returned, you haven’t said _one_ word to me _or_ Guan.”

A pause. “I know you don’t like Guan that much, but what about _me_? Aren’t I your friend? Or is your lover the only important person in your life?”

“Lover”, Wuya repeated, trying to feel out if he was serious. When she saw he was, she laughed. “Chase, come on—you really think that? Dashi is my friend.”

“And so am I!”

“And so are you”, she agreed. “But are you the only Dragon currently not a part of the Xiaolin temple?”

It took him a minute, but once Chase realized what was going on, he groaned. “Do not tell me Master Chen is—”

“ _Oh_ , he is!”

“I don’t even like that Dashi kid”, Chase grumbled and crossed his arms. “Did you hear he got his own _bathroom_? Who does he think he is? Grandmaster Yuan?!”

After that conversation with Chase, not much changed. Wuya still woke up every day to find classes going on without her—save for weaving classes, _of course_ , they _always_ had a space for her in weaving—and had nothing to do until Dashi started to come around to pester her.

Wuya learned to use that time, those two hours she sometimes had after breakfast, to practice some of her magic. Master Yi had given her two scrolls, one with basic spells and others with more intermediate stuff. The hard spells, he’d said, were ones they could talk about in their letters.

And so, Wuya limited herself to reading the notes she’d written about the histories Master Yi taught her and practicing the few spells she’d had written. And in that two-hour window, she’d felt the best she ever did.

She felt like she was finally doing what she had to do and no one was going to stop her. That went on until about fourth week into Dashi’s exchange, when Guan interrupted her by barging into her room without notice.

“Guan!”, Wuya yelled, dropping the scroll she’d been reading. “I could have been changing!”

Unabashed, the Earth Dragon shrugged. “But you’re not. I saw you at breakfast, you were all dressed.”

“Still, privacy. Have you heard of it?”

“In this temple?”

He had a point, Wuya allowed before she sighed. “What do you want?”

“We need you to settle a fight between Chase and Dashi.”

Although she was not surprised, she pretended. “Are they fighting?”

“Not really but they’re arguing and they’re getting louder and in each other’s faces”, Guan said, shrugging. “So, I had to—”

“So, you came to get me instead of…trying to do anything?”, Wuya asked, raising an eyebrow. Granted, Guan never liked conflict, but she’d never have expected him to go this route.

“Yes”, Guan said, as if this was normal. “If I say anything, one of them is going to take that as a provocation to hit—you haven’t seen how our recent trainings went; it’s awful!”

Nodding understandingly, Wuya gestured Guan to leave and followed him outside. They didn’t walk for too long. Soon enough, the increasingly loud voices told them where to go. And when they arrived there, well, Wuya didn’t know what to make of it.

“—nothing but some over-praised Heylin twit”, Chase was yelling, face absolutely livid with anger. “So, tell me again _who_ do _you_ think you are?!”

Dashi, meanwhile, didn’t look as incensed. Sure, he was angry and Wuya could tell by his reddening ears but he kept a strangely calm face.

“You already know who I am—it’s not my fault you feel threatened. Maybe you are for a good reason. Scared?”

“You wish!”

Guan didn’t bother looking at Wuya. “See what I mean? They’re just waiting for a catalyst.”

“I see that”, Wuya said, unfazed. In a strange way, she was oddly happy to see those two fighting.

It’d been way too long since she’d seen Chase get upset and attempting to do something about it and she’d never really seen Dashi in a fight. The idea crept to her silently. What if there was a way to get some entertainment _while_ fixing this whole mess?

“Hit him”, Wuya called, cupping her hands around her mouth. “What are you waiting for? _Hit_ _him_.”

The surprise made all three boys turn to face her. Guan looked suspicious but Chase and Dashi only looked confused. She shrugged before crossing her arms.

“You didn’t hear me?”

“We did”, Chase said, uncertainly. “But who were you talking to?”

Dashi tried to appear more confident than he looked. “Obviously, me. _Right_?”

“No, to whoever listened”, Wuya said, sharing a look with Guan before turning to the others. “You two clearly don’t like each other and we know that and you know that. Why kid ourselves? Fight so this can be over.”

A pause. “Or are you suddenly friends without telling me?”

“I would rather be boiled alive!”

“How dare you even say that, Wuya!”

Seething, Chase fixed his admonishing gaze on his friend and added.

“I don’t even understand how _you_ are friends with him! This, this _scum_ is his village’s idiot! He’s rude and arrogant and not skilled with a bow and arrow _or_ with a staff—even his Lotus Strike is two inches to the right! And those little toys of his—”

“You went through _my_ _things_?”, Dashi interrupted, for the first time sounding angry. “I didn’t want to say this—at least not now so you can run to old Master Young but you are a _disgrace_ to all Dragons that ever existed.”

A pause. “You’re spiteful and jealous and you have _severe_ self-reflecting to do. Don’t blame _me_ because I can easily do and be everything you can’t.”

Dashi paused again, this time taking a step closer and shoving Chase. “And bring back whatever it is you took, you thief!”

“Don’t push him”, Guan warned, sending glares to the Heylin apprentice. “You don’t belong here, you don’t get to overstep. And Chase hasn’t taken anything from you—all those toys of yours didn’t even work!”

“You _used_ —”

Already tired and already in the need for some tea, Wuya whistled and got the three apprentices’ attention. If they were going to butt antlers anyway, then accelerating that wouldn’t cause much harm.

“Fight”, she said, repeating her words again. “Hit each other, punch, kick, elemental attacks, I don’t care—just wrap this up and stop acting like spoiled children and start acting like actual _men_.”

Though he glared at her now, Chase agreed. “Wuya’s right. We need to put this behind us once and for all.”

As the two apprentice Dragons, Chase and Dashi, took their fighting stances and Guan returned to stand beside Wuya, all while side-eying her and giving her a shoulder that was all but literally icy.

Sighing, Wuya hoped the fight wouldn’t take up too much of their time because she didn’t enjoy Guan’s petty presence next to her. And it seemed like the boys somehow heard her prayers too. See, in the next minute, Dashi tried for one specific strike.

“Monkey Strike!”

Though it was basically undetectable, Chase smirked. And Wuya and Guan both knew why.

“Repulse the Monkey!”

Thrown off his rhythm and off his feet, Dashi was completely silent even after he hit the ground. Laid back on his back on the ground, the Water Dragon seemed too surprised to push out any words, while the victor, Chase, stood and smiled viciously.

And although Guan was smiling proudly and Wuya was somewhat amused, that changed after a minute of Dashi’s unmoving.

“Chase”, Guan asked, tentatively. “Is he…awake? What did you do?”

Said warrior blanched, terrified at the possibility that something he hadn’t planned happened. “I—nothing. We were fighting and he lost, you _saw_!”

While both warriors argued and fretted, Wuya walked to where Dashi was sprawled and saw he was clearly wide-eyed and awake. He still said nothing, though he did look Wuya in the eye.

And then, well, then Dashi started laughing. Laughing so loudly, Chase and Guan eventually noticed and stood over him too.

“I _lost_ ”, Dashi said, in between cackles, eyes teary with glee now. “No, I _really_ lost!”

Finding something comical about the situation, Guan chuckled too. “You did.”

The Earth Dragon then nudged Chase. “He lost. _You_ beat him.”

Already laughing and holding his ribs, Chase’s laughs grew louder and louder until they got high-pitched enough to make Wuya join the laughing parade too, even if she wasn’t laughing for the same reasons they all were.

That, she remembered, had been one of the memories she’d cherished the most. All that pure, uncalled for laughter that came from being young and stupid and brash.

Sure, afterwards, they’d be scolded and asked to do more meditation to ‘quell their foolishness’ but afterwards, all four teenagers had finally become friends.


	5. Hatchling

_Present day_

After she started pouring her second cup of tea, Wuya and the silence she’d come to enjoy were sorely interrupted by distinct childish screaming.

Thankfully, by the time, the screaming had gotten louder and the kid reached the table, Wuya had already had her teacup lifted away from the danger. After the smiley kid took his hands off the table and started looking at her curiously, the witch set her cup back down and sighed.

“ _Papai_ ”, the little brown-skinned boy started, a little too excitedly even Wuya found herself smiling. And then he switched to Japanese. “Why aren’t you outside? Where’s Mama? And who is _she_?”

Raimundo looked up from his phone, shooting the kid a smile that was clearly confused. Smile spreading and giving away to a chuckle, Wuya realized he didn’t understand.

The kid seemed to realize that too because he repeated himself in a language Wuya didn’t recognize, after which Raimundo nodded, relief clear on his face, and answered back.

After a beat, the grownup warrior gave the witch a smile. “So, this is Ryo.”

“Pai”, Ryo began, when he heard his name, eyes trained on Wuya. He looked at his father again, a question in his eyes. “ _Q_ —”

Raimundo immediately answered. “ _Inglês_.”

“Hi”, Ryo said to the witch now, wide-eyed and extending a tiny hand. “I’m Ryo. I’m five.”

Wuya shook the little runt’s hand, still smiling despite herself. “Well, how are you, Ryo? I’m Wuya and I’m…thirty-five.”

Noticing Raimundo’s scoff, the witch shot him a glare. “Physically, I _am_.”

“Are you here for Tio Omi’s wedding?”, Ryo said, ignoring the interaction, curiosity growing now. “Are you a _monk_? I saw many monks but Mama said I can’t talk to some of them because they’re on a, a…”

Unable to find the words, the little boy switched to Portuguese, the other language Wuya didn’t recognize, and asked his father a question.

Raimundo nodded and, to Wuya’s benefit, explained, “A vow of silence, Ryo.”

“They’re doing what Papai just said”, Ryo said, turning to Wuya again. “But I can talk to _you_ , right, Senhora?”

“Senhora?”, Wuya asked, raising an eyebrow. It was better to focus on that rather than everything else the kid had said. She wasn’t quite sure what he’d wanted to ask about.

Raimundo smirked, a little too full of himself for her liking. “Yeah, my kids have manners. Surprise, surprise.”

“Surprise indeed”, Wuya retorted, remembering the more unpleasant moments of the Wind Dragon’s apprenticeship. “I will say I didn’t expect him to know three languages, though.”

As Ryo finally wrestled his father’s phone out of his hands and promised to stick to the game apps, Raimundo shrugged. “Yeah, we wanted them to know both Portuguese and Japanese but somehow the English got involved too—I don’t even know how, really.”

“I think they just picked up on how you and Kimiko talk to each other”, Wuya said. “Unless you speak to each other in your native languages.”

“ _No_ ”, Raimundo said, laughing. “You just saw, I can’t understand beginner-level Japanese and Kimiko’s Portuguese is _shit_. No joke, it sounds like she’s having a stroke half the time.”

The witch laughed, too. She was right. At least this type of small talk wasn’t awkward or slowly driving her mad. “You cracked the mystery then.”

“Yeah”, the grownup warrior said, smile spreading now. “You know, I have to tell you about the time we were teaching them how to say ‘water’, like, we were fighting over it for a week straight and—”

Hearing the same loud tune she did, Raimundo sighed and muttered something under his breath before giving Ryo a look and holding his hand out. Reluctantly, Ryo handed the phone over.

“Shit—don’t say that”, Raimundo eloquently began. “it’s work, I gotta take it.”

Pausing, his eyes quickly shot up to meet the curious Heylin witch’s.

“No offense and all, but I can’t leave you here alone with my kid”, Raimundo said. “But I can’t leave you alone at all…wait a second.”

Getting up, the Wind Dragon went to the doorless doorway and scanned the hallways. From what Wuya could see, no one was there but Raimundo seemed to spot someone a few moments later.

“Hey, yeah _you_!”, he said, calling someone over. “Yo, I _see_ you, you _fucking_ gecko—get your scaly ass over here.”

Waiting now, Raimundo turned and gave his son an admonishing look. “Ryo—”

“I won’t say the bad words”, the boy sighed, sounding a little bored with the routine though a mischievous smirk told Wuya he’d be saying them anyway.

“Good”, Raimundo said, sighing. “I’ll go make a call. Keep an eye on Wuya and Dojo, okay?”

“Okay, Papai!”

Amused now, Wuya crossed her arms and waited for the ancient green dragon to slither into the room after Raimundo left it. After a minute, she thought the dragon was never going to show up. And then, he did.

Perhaps, she now thought, she did need to see Dojo. After twelve years were just taken from her in the snap of a finger, Wuya woke up to find a marginally changed world where her nemeses had grown up and apparently grew out of their jobs.

Everything changed. Everything but Dojo, who looked the same as he did all those years ago.

“Hello, Dojo”, Wuya said, smiling pleasantly. Seeing that dragon shiver in her presence was akin to hearing a soothing babbling brook. “How are you doing?”

Wary and keeping his distance as he wrapped himself around a curious kid’s neck as he played with the teacups on the table, Dojo scowled before speaking.

“Way worse now that _you’re_ here. I told Omi to not invite you, but that kid never listens to me! Always has to make pals with irredeemable wretches!”

A pause. “Speaking of that, Chase Young isn’t with you, right? He’s not just gonna pop out anywhere, is he?”

“Dojo, who’s Chase?”, Ryo asked, not interested enough to take his eyes off his new playing objects.

They both ignored the kid.

“No, I don’t suppose he’s invited”, Wuya said, after a beat, enjoying the dragon’s panic. “But what do I know? He never tells me anything. Maybe Omi invited him and he’s hiding somewhere. Better be on your toes.”

“I despise you.”

“Likewise.”

Pausing, Dojo pridefully crossed his claws. “Hag!”

“Says the pot to the kettle”, she retorted, mockingly. “A bit hypocritical of you to call me that when you and I have been around for pretty much the same time, isn’t it?”

Dojo huffed. “ _Puh-lease_ , in Dragon years, I’m a _baby_! We’re expected to stay around for a long time. Humans on the other hand—well, I suppose you were never really one.”

“You’re right”, Wuya said, smirking now. If the dragon thought he was getting under her skin, he was sorely mistaken. “I’m not. I was there to see you hatch and I’ll _still_ be here when you turn into Lao Mang Lone soup.”

With that last sentence menacingly said, Ryo raised a curious hand. He seemed fixated on only one thing. “Are you a dragon, Senhora?”

Then with an admonishing look to Dojo, he added, pouting. “You said people _can’t_ be dragons.”

“And I mean it, kiddo”, Dojo said, comically widening his eyes. “Wuya isn’t people, though.”

“Then what is she?”

_Good_ _question_ , Wuya thought, though she didn’t let it affect her steady smirk. What was she, after all this time?

“See? I knew we shouldn’t have invited you”, Dojo said. “You’ll get the kids and the new apprentices asking who you are and then they’ll know and panic and it’ll become a whole thing!”

Pausing, the dragon threw the kid a look. “Ryo, can you please go and check on your dad?”

“No”, Ryo protested, scrunching his nose. “I wanna hear and—”

Dojo sighed and shut his eyes. “If you go I’ll take you on an air-ride.”

“ _Okay_. But you promised.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have invited me”, Wuya said, after the kid left the room. A frown made its way to her face now. They weren’t even telling the new apprentices who she was? That was just _insulting_.

“I _told_ you Omi invited you and we couldn’t say anything since it’s his wedding”, Dojo grumbled. “You know, I asked him why and all but his answer didn’t make a lick of sense—I never understood that kid but, you know… _Water_ _Dragons_.”

Though Dojo hadn’t said anything else and only scoffed before fixing the teacups properly on the table, grumbling about how they’re ‘ _most definitely not toys’_ , Wuya knew what he meant. They both knew.

Apparently all Water Dragons had soft spots for her. And if that wasn’t enough to make Wuya remember all that she didn’t want to remember and get the sickening urge to throw up, nothing was.

Needing a change of topic, Wuya cleared her throat. “So where is that old Fung? I’m one of the greatest Heylin threats you’ve ever had and yet he’s not even here to greet me as the temple’s master—frankly, this is _insulting_ , Dojo.”

“Well”, Dojo said, with eyes that suddenly lost their humor. “Wen isn’t the temple’s master anymore. He…he died a few years back.”

Pausing, the ancient dragon took a moment to sigh and shake his head. Wuya raised an eyebrow at that; she didn’t expect Dojo’s sadness over mortals at his age.

“Besides, you did meet the temple’s new master, Wuya.”

“Did I?”, she asked, before considering the possibilities. “Omi?”

“And Raimundo”, Dojo added. “It’s more of a shared custody type of thing. Wen legally left it to Raimundo, but I’m sure you’ve read their minds enough to know how he and Omi get about things like these—that will was a _nightmare_.”

As the dragon prattled on about little trivialities, Wuya found herself thinking about Master Fung. She didn’t know him, not by a mile, but that old teacher had vaguely reminded her of Master Chen. Patient, ruthless, and too stubborn to die.

But he did die eventually, just like Master Chen did. Sighing now, Wuya found herself wondering why thinking about her old teacher made her feel melancholic. Even though it’d been centuries and centuries, she couldn’t help that feeling.

She supposed this normal, though, because Dojo, too, was clearly troubled over the deaths he’d witnessed. Remembering the still-prattling dragon, Wuya tried to focus on what he was saying.

“—sure, Puppy-dog Eyes didn’t get to see the twins but, you know”, Dojo was saying, vaguely motioning with is claws. “At least he got to see the kids become Dragons.”

“So”, Wuya nodded, because she didn’t know what else to say. “At least he saw his job to the end.”

And that was another thing both teachers shared. Master Chen had died after they’d became Dragons too.

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

Wuya had been one of the very few people in the room when the green-and-red dragon egg hatched.

But that was _not_ anything special. As few as they were, there was a significant number of people in the room. Among them, she counted Master Chen, Master Young, a reluctant Chase, a curious-but-unwilling-to-show-it Guan, herself, and an excited Dashi who all but dragged them to the meditation hall to witness the event.

“You _have_ to stay here. Come on, _look_ at that”, Dashi had said, parking himself right in front of the vibrating egg, all but promising to sit until it hatched. So far, it’d only cracked. “We’re witnessing _history_.”

As ever, Guan played the skeptic. “Are we, though? Dashi, it’s been vibrating like this for _days_. If that was a sign, then it would have hatched. Say something, Wuya—you know he only listens to you.”

“Yeah, yes”, Wuya said, not appreciating being called like that since it made both elder masters’ heads swivel her way.

Master Young disapprovingly clicked his tongue while Master Chen knowingly smiled. She ignored them both. “But it only cracked last night, so maybe something _is_ going to happen. It’s unclear.”

That was a lie, of course. It was _very_ clear the egg was hatching anytime soon. Even though it’d been vibrating for about a week and has shown signs of nearly cracking for two days before it did, Wuya knew a dragon was about to come out anytime soon.

She just felt it, deep in her heart and in the tips of her fingers. It was too strong, it bothered her that none of the others felt it too.

_But then again_ , Wuya thought. Maybe they didn’t want to be the _first_ ones to assume. After Dashi was given the egg, he’d told her Master Chen hesitated when he told him when it would hatch but that wasn’t all surprising. Later that same day, Ju, Wuya’s maid friend, told her the elders said dragon eggs struggle to hatch off the island.

“Only the ones that truly to belong to the place where they are”, Ju had told her, recounting what old Master Nuo said. “Will hatch to protect that very place. That’s how you know you have a guardian dragon.”

Remembering this little exchange by the koi pond, Wuya allowed herself a discreet smile. She would get to see a _real dragon_. A dragon in the flesh, flying and breathing fire as it grew. And now she frowned.

_But if the egg hatches_ , Wuya thought. _Then that dragon belongs here._ Would that make Dashi stay indefinitely? He’d already postponed his return to the Heylin Temple, choosing to deliberate over which temple to choose from the comfort of their own.

So, if that egg hatched and that dragon was destined to protect the Xiaolin Temple, would Dashi feel obligated to stay? She shook her head.

Even though she hadn’t known him for the longest period, Wuya could tell Dashi was one of the types she knew best. Those who felt an obligation to nothing but duty. But if he left…

Well, did _she_ want him to stay? Frowning at herself, Wuya realized that she didn’t really know what she thought. So far, she’d been pretending not to notice certain looks he’d been giving her but, then again didn’t she—

Instantly furrowing her eyebrows at the thought that just snuck up on her, Wuya frowned. And when Chase scoffed, opening his mouth to say something, her frown deepened.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if it’s all a fluke?”, Chase sarcastically quipped. “You know, we all wait and it cracks and it turns out there’s nothing there but a gooey liquid we could have used in our breakfasts?”

Master Young sighed and shot his son a glare. “ _Manners_! You can’t talk about sacred dragons like these, Apprentice. You’d be unworthy of the title you’re seeking!”

“Though he is a tad extreme”, Master Chen began, nodding. “Master Young is right, Chase. Dragons will not bless you if you mock them—in fact, they might curse you with the worst things you can imagine.”

Though Guan successfully hid most of his snicker, Wuya still heard him whisper to Chase. “Maybe you’ll become like one of those cannibals from the stories.”

As the two boys snickered and the masters talked, though, Wuya and Dashi shared a knowing look. With every passing moment, they’d both known it was coming soon.

Over the first week he’d had the egg, Dashi wasn’t seen without it. He had it with him when he had his meals and he’d had it sitting on the sidelines while he trained and took his lessons.

It’d gotten to the point where Master Chen had to politely intervene and tell the Dragon to keep the egg by his mat because it was becoming a distraction. So naturally, Dashi gave the egg to Wuya, who was already reluctantly skipping her classes until Master Chen’s iron-clad plan of getting the Dragon to their temple failed.

“Can you believe he said that?”, Dashi had said that first day he’d given Wuya the egg.

Wuya shrugged, a smile perpetually present on her face because of the egg’s ticklish glow. “What?”

“What do you think? The part about extreme attachments—I just don’t get it.”

“What _don’t_ you get?”, she asked, trying her best not to roll her eyes. “That’s the first lesson you get once you’re inside the gates. No attachments and not too many personal belongings.”

“No”, he said, shaking his head. “I get that part but Master Chen said extreme attachments? Like what does that even mean, extreme? And I’m not even _that_ attached to that egg!”

But that, of course, was a lie. Dashi couldn’t get enough of that egg.

When they’d both finished their lessons and chores and snuck into one of the boarded up empty rooms to work on the rest of the Sheng Gong Wu, Dashi would cradle the egg until it was it was time for his meager fine tunings.

And, yes, it’d turned out that tweaking and tuning the Sheng Gong Wu, especially when they were already half-made, was great magic practice for Wuya.

During the day-time, before breakfast, she’d read up and practice all that she could and during the night, when she had the Wu, she went off-scroll.

All of Dashi’s trinkets were wonky at first. The one that made ants go into your pants used to vibrate so hard it’d not only create ants but it’d also draw actual ant colonies to join in. Another one that made a person’s limbs stretch had an aftereffect of keeping the bones bending even when you weren’t holding it.

There was even one that made a person go limitlessly kooky and that was where Dashi drew the line to her tweaking.

“No, that one’s _supposed_ to be like that”, Dashi defended when Wuya left the Mantis Flip Coin and went to grab another trinket. “It’s for _parties_ , Wuya. Big events, you know. Weddings, maybe.”

Wuya was incredulous. “You want people to act like _that_ at parties?”

“Okay, so it could use a little tuning”, Dashi allowed, though he wasn’t happy about it. “But I have enough magic to do that on my own…you might rework it too much.”

And because Wuya didn’t want any more of his whining, she let it go. She took her seat on the ground and grabbed the egg, cradling it on her lap, gesturing Dashi to try the newly improved coin.

But Dashi didn’t seem to notice that. Instead his eyes settled themselves on the increasing glow of the egg.

“Master Yi once told me that magic recognized magic”, he said, in that oddly quiet tone he took when he wasn’t joking. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time but I think he may be right. That dragon likes you.”

Wuya shrugged. “It glows when it’s around you too.”

“Yes but you’re a natural with magic so with you it glows a little brighter”, he said before pausing for a second. “Do you think this is why we’re really good together?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re talented and in tune with your magic”, Dashi said, casually. “And I’m talented and kind of in tune with my magic, so maybe that’s why we were drawn to each other?”

“Drawn to each other”, Wuya repeated, not knowing why her stomach was turning into an uncomfortable knot. It was both uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. “That’s a weird way of saying friends. You should just say it. _Friends_.”

Deflating a little, he agreed though he seemed to be talking about something else altogether. “I _should_ just say it.”

What he meant by that, Wuya didn’t know. And she wouldn’t have time to decode it either. She’d snapped out of her thoughts and back into the present when Chase, bewildered and in awe, shook her shoulders so she could look at what had happened.

A dragon, green and red and covered in goo, had broken the shells of his egg and started slithering to the Water Dragon with the open arms.

Having a real dragon in the Xiaolin Temple changed nothing and everything all at once. Almost three years after Dojo hatched, the people of the temple were still having trouble adjusting to his arrival.

It’d turned out the dragon, a new hatchling of the un-reincarnated variety, was a demanding creature to raise.

In the first few days, he’d done nothing but slither and follow the Dragon apprentices around. And when the days turned into weeks and months and they saw that dragons rapidly grew, the real problems started to emerge.

Dojo wouldn’t eat anything they’d offered him until they discovered dragons needed heaps and heaps of raw meat. And when he sneezed, the maids complained about the week-long cleaning they had to do because the dragon-snot was particularly hard to clean.

This was without mentioning all the times Dojo accidentally sneezed fire, which didn’t really go over too well. In fact, by the time the fifth apprentice lost their right eyebrow, Master Young put his foot down.

“Chase will fix it”, Master Young had said, firmly. “He is the Fire Dragon after all.”

And fix it, Chase could only try. Not without a lot of complaining and cursing, though. As they watched him try to drill breathing techniques into a three-month old hatchling, Guan and Wuya couldn’t help but laugh and imitate the angry then-seventeen year-old.

“Of course”, Chase had said, though he kept his eyes trained on a trembling Dojo. “The two slackers are the ones mocking me for doing my job.”

Dojo, who kept peeking at Wuya every few seconds, nervously said. Though a late-bloomer in most skills, it hadn’t taken him much time to talk. “Master Chase is doing his best and I’m deeply grateful—”

“ _Master_?”, Guan snickered. “Please don’t give him a bigger ego, Dojo. He’s barely Wudai—don’t let him scare you.”

“The scariest thing about Chase is that frown”, Wuya quipped, allowing her smirk to turn into a full-blown smile. “Look at it! It makes him age three hundred years in one go.”

Before Chase, who’d crossed his arms, could say anything, Dashi walked into the courtyard, eerily quiet, looking nervously at all their faces. He seemed hesitant like he didn’t know if he should say what he wanted to say.

“What is it now?”, Chase asked, worried and half-hiding it. “Did they make a bronze statue in your honor or did they give you jade pendants?”

Dashi didn’t smile or joke back, making Chase and Wuya share look. Sighing, he walked closer and allowed a relieved Dojo to slither and wrap himself around his neck.

“So, you all know I’ve been postponing the end of my Exchange”, the Water Dragon began, after clearing his throat. “But I’ve finally made my decision about which temple I’m choosing.”

And just like that, Wuya’s heart dropped. Even though he hadn’t said anything, Dashi really didn’t need to.

The way he sighed and cleared his throat to stall for time and the way he’d avoided her eyes told her all she needed to know. And even though it wasn’t her choice, she’d already felt betrayed. She’d been leaning towards another temple as well.

“Well”, Guan prompted, shrugging. “Which one is it going to be?”

When Dashi said nothing, the Earth Dragon added, “You can speak truthfully. Don’t worry about our feelings; we understand it’s your choice in the end.”

Chase agreed. “He’s right. I can’t say I didn’t hate you when you first came but we’ve come a long way, Dashi, and when you leave, we’ll keep writing to each other, of course. And—”

“Who said anything about leaving?”, Dashi interrupted with a sheepish smile, moving his eyes between his two fellow Dragons. “I chose to stay right here in the Xiaolin Temple.”

Guan and Chase didn’t quite process what was said at first, but the former recovered first, laughing with relief before running to hug the Water Dragon.

After that start, Chase blinked and threw an unsure glance to Wuya, who nodded at him to go, so he did and congratulated Dashi.

And she congratulated him too. She even hugged him and joked about how she was more worried about Dojo’s potential leaving. Later that night, though, when they were working on their Shen Gong Wu in the boarded-up room, Wuya had something else to say.

“Why would you stay here?”, she asked, trying as hard as she could to keep her voice devoid of judgment. She only glanced once at Dojo, who nodded and made a zipped-lips gesture. “I told you about Master Chen’s plan and you fell right into it.”

Dashi sighed. “I didn’t stay here because he bought me with all those gifts. No offense, Dojo.”

“None taken”, the green dragon said, awkwardly looking between the two apprentices. “You know, these Ants in the Pants are really something. I’m going to play with that there… _way_ over there. Don’t mind me.”

“What about Master Yi?”, Wuya asked, when the dragon was out of earshot. “Did you tell him?”

“Why did you think it took so long for me to reach my decision?”, Dashi said, answering with a question of his own. “I wrote him a month ago. I wrote to Master Ping and Zeng and Zhang, too.”

A pause. “I grew up with them, you know, and I can’t even tell you how much I’ll miss them all but it’s just…I belong _here_ , Wuya.”

“You belong in temple that differentiates between Dragons and everyone else?”, Wuya asked, raising an eyebrow. “You belong in a place that gives you privileges over everyone else? You belong in the place that stifles magic, Dashi?”

She paused, exhaling loudly. “I’ve only been working on the Shen Gong Wu with you for months and _you’ve_ been working on them for years and I can _guarantee_ you Master Chen might just banish you if he finds them because the temple is against magic.”

Another pause. “Is this the place where you belong, Dashi?”

“It is”, Dashi insisted. “There’s a reason we’re both here, Wuya. We could be the ones to change the Xiaolin stance on magic. We could change things.”

“You’re delusional”, Wuya said, scoffing despite herself. She ignored how Dashi’s face fell. “The Xiaolin will never change. If they wanted to, they would have years ago. Didn’t you read the scrolls on Xiaolin and Heylin monks who tried to mend the rift?”

“Yeah, I did”, he said. “I know it’s a long shot but it’s a shot either way.”

The room was silent for a moment, save for Dojo’s quiet tinkering with the Wu in the furthest corner of the room. Dashi coughed and smiled now.

“What are you smiling about?”, Wuya said, admittedly curious herself.

The Water Dragon shrugged. “Nothing, it’s just that Master Chen was so worried when he summoned me yesterday. He was trying to see if I made up my mind, so he said that if I chose Xiaolin I’d be given the ultimate privilege—something given to no other.”

_Of_ _course_ , Wuya thought, rolling her eyes. “Which is?”

“Uh”, Dashi began, awkwardly scratching his neck. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

He paused, worriedly. “You know, _you_ didn’t say which temple you’re choosing yet. Are you still deliberating?”

“I’m only obliged to officially pick when I’m twenty”, Wuya said, expertly avoiding the question.

“So, uh…you’re not going to leave are you?”, he asked, then with a strangled chuckle, he added, “We have a little dragon together, you know.”

She scoffed. “No, _you_ have a dragon. And I’m not saying anything. You know I can’t leave—the Xiaolin temple is my home.”

“But you’re not happy with how it’s running things?”

“Can’t you love your home and still disagree with what goes on inside it? It’s not entirely bad, it’s just…”

Sighing, Wuya shock her head as she trailed off. She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t say the temple stifled her and didn’t take her seriously. No, the Xiaolin temple had given her too much for her to be ungrateful. Why would she ever consider leaving it?

“It’s my home”, she finally said, before giving Dashi a resigned grin. “And now I guess it’s yours too.”

Although she was yet to discover her would-be talent of telling fortunes (and bending them to her will), Wuya had never been so startled to see herself in the right.

Dashi fit into the Xiaolin Temple like a hand fit a well-worn glove, even if neither Wuya nor Chase wanted to admit it at first. No one could have predicted a popularity contest in the temple but it seemed like the once-Heylin apprentice won it, nonetheless.

People loved Dashi. They just did. The Water Dragon already had Master Chen and other elders on their toes—mostly, in case he ever went back on his decision—so he still wasn’t as roughly disciplined as everyone else was.

And whenever it seemed like Master Young’s endless patience with him had ran out, Dashi was always quick to remedy the situation with an absurd joke or two. It was uncanny how he’d had everyone in the temple from the maids to the stable-boys to those who visited to offer their prayers captivated.

But then again, Wuya knew, it wasn’t that much of a mystery. Before Dashi, all everyone knew of Dragons came from the ones that’d already lived there, which wasn’t much.

Guan was reticent and aloof and was always thought of as arrogant and harsh simply because he was chronically shy and had nothing to say and Chase _was_ arrogant and sometimes overly harsh even if he didn’t mean it.

Dashi, though, was friendly and casual and looked people in the eye when he spoke to them. He spoke to them easily, even though he was a Dragon Warrior. It wasn’t unusual to overhear cooks singing his praises or spot the increased number of Dragon Hunters in the nearby town.

But where a lot of people were intrigued, Chase and Guan were a little upset. Well, not upset. Mostly suddenly worrying about their own statuses and perceptions, which added onto Guan’s reticence and Chase’s staunchness.

As time went on, though, everyone adapted. Chase gave up on trying to outshine the Water Dragon and focused on his own training and Guan started gaining confidence. Dashi, too, started reigning in his inflated ego. Even _Master_ _Young_ learned how to let some things slide.

Soon enough, the Dragon apprentices managed to become perfectly in tune with each other. And, even though that was a relatively short period, it only took them three years to reach the class of Dragon Warriors – a fact the Xiaolin temple and the nearby town celebrated for weeks.

Three, being a lucky number, meant good things, according to the elder maids and cooks Wuya managed to overhear gossiping. And for a while, only good things came.

It took Guan, Chase, and Dashi three years to become Dragons and perfect their elements. And It took Kanojo Cho Dojo three years—well, two and a half—to finish his traditional Dragon Island pilgrimage and learn how to properly breathe fire and how to expand to incredible lengths.

And what about Wuya? What happened to her during those three years?

Well, Wuya made the most of it. No, she really did. After Dashi officially declared his temple, she was finally allowed to drop all pretenses and go back to her classes. She also used all the free time she was allowed to practice her craft.

Keeping an ongoing correspondence with Master Yi, Wuya learned to go beyond the beginner and intermediate spells. She studied the lessons he’d write her, histories about great magic users and shamans and warnings about certain spells, by heart.

She invented her own spells and when she started uttering them with ease, barely worrying about possibly causing hair loss or pestilence after the first year. She’d even veered off into potions, though she’d soon learned that was _not_ a talent of hers and _neither_ was oracle bone-reading.

What _was_ a talent of hers, though, was feeling whenever the Shen Gong Wu were used. Wuya didn’t know spurred this or even how it started.

And she wasn’t even going to wonder about it, but whenever she felt a little jolt and knew which Wu was used, she’d see that Dojo felt it too.

Master Yi confirmed what she was thinking if one of his responses to her. “Dragons, _real_ dragons”, the old man wrote. “Are magic personified. It’s embedded into their very beings and you, Wuya, are a _witch_ in the making—any magic Dojo leaves behind will find its way onto you.”

That was one intriguing thing the Heylin master wrote. Another was about Dashi. “It has been a while since he wrote home. Tell him Master Yi is proud of his achievements.”

And on a clear night after she’d stopped Dashi from making eyes at her friend Ju and dragged him to sit with her and the others by the koi pond , Wuya did just that.

“Master Yi says he’s proud of you”, she said, trying to play nonchalant. “And he also says you haven’t been writing to the Heylin temple.”

To that Dashi shrugged, while Guan scoffed disapprovingly. “I told him he needed to write his old master back after the seventh letter arrived but he just ignores me.”

A pause. “I can’t think of anything more _horrendous_ than turning your back on the people who raised you. Personally, I’d give anything to see my grandmother again.”

“This is nothing like _that_ , Guan. And you’re too kind”, Chase said, rolling his eyes. With a nod to their third teammate, he added, “He’s right to not write him back. They’re Heylin and you _know_ what they’re like. Remember that apprentice, Zeng?”

Guan scrunched his nose. “Oh, _don’t_ remind me.”

“Exactly”, Chase said, nodding, before turning to face Wuya. “What I don’t understand is why _you_ are writing to the Heylin temple.”

Wuya shrugged, already knowing her answer. It wasn’t the first time Chase had asked her this question and he wasn’t the only one to do so.

Master Chen, Ju, and the messenger who delivered the letters asked her too. And her answer never changed. ‘ _They were too kind to me_ ’. ‘ _It’s of Xiaolin code to honor those who honored you’_.

“Well, you know”, she said. “They treated me well and I enjoyed my stay.”

“And because you enjoyed your stay you decided to keep permanent correspondence with the Heylin master?”, Chase asked, in that way of his that labelled everything a person said stupid.

Then, with a scoff, he added, “It’s only lucky you’ve never been to a boarding house!”

“Like _you_ have? On the two missions you’ve been on, you returned before sundown and that’s because your father _still_ doesn’t see you as a grown man!”

At that, Chase scoffed again but that scoff quickly turned into a few spaced-out chuckles as Wuya directed her best glare at him. Smiling at the fairly normal exchange, Guan almost laughed too before glancing at Dashi, sitting pensive with reddened ears.

“What’s wrong, Dashi? You haven’t said anything.”

“I have nothing to say”, Dashi said, with an unusually still voice. He shrugged. “Wuya can talk to whoever she wants to talk to and Master Yi—well, I haven’t been writing back to anyone. I’m focusing on my studies, you know.”

At this, Chase groaned while Guan sighed. Even though it’d only been a month after they were made Dragons, Dashi wasn’t content with just being a Dragon. He wanted to be the best of the best, so he’d decided to study until he made Grandmaster.

Naturally, this made the elders like him even more, but his work ethic impressed even Guan, who made the decision to go back to his studies too. Chase, however, was content with what he’d accomplished, much to his father’s chagrin.

“You’re the worst friend anyone can have”, Chase said, scowling as if remembering something sour. “We become Dragons— _Dragons_!—and you want to start studying _again_? My father won’t stop talking about how much he wished I had your ambition.”

As if hearing this sparked something in him, Dashi threw his head back and laughed. “So should I change my last name to Young yet? I think your father won’t mind adopting a lowly orphan like me.”

“Lowly Orphan Grandmaster Young”, Guan said, a cheeky smile on his face. “Does have a nice ring to it.”

As the boys snickered and veered off into another discussion, Wuya sighed and stood up to leave, making an excuse about going to bed because she had errands early in the morning.

It wasn’t the first time Dashi had lied about why he’d stopped writing to Master Yi.

“He lied to me first”, Dashi had said, a week earlier when she told him he was a bad liar. “All those years, he kept me in his temple and all he did was lie!”

Wuya crossed her arms. “Is what he lied about _that_ horrible?”

“Yes. Look, you may not understand this—”

“And if you don’t talk to me like an adult who understands basic sentences”, Wuya cut him off, seething as she did. “I never will. Dashi, you’re being simply _vile_.”

A pause. Sighing, Wuya nodded to herself in reassurance. Maybe it was time she told him what she’d been suspecting for some time now.

“Actually, you’ve been nothing but vile to me recently. If you decided you don’t want to be my friend anymore, you should just say it.”

Although Dashi’s face fell at the accusation, Wuya held her ground. What else could it all mean? The more time passed by, the closer she got with Chase and Guan, the latter of whom she still sometimes felt iffy about, but Dashi only seemed to drift apart from her. No one noticed it but her, though.

Wuya’s magic was only growing and so far she’d helped him with all the ideas he’d had for Wu and after Dashi finally pulled the plug on his ideas, he didn’t seem to want anything to do with her anymore.

“How could you even say that, Wuya?”, Dashi asked, incredulously. “You were my first friend here and you mean a lot to me…I just, I don’t know, I’ve been feeling a little off these days but that doesn’t mean that I hate you.”

“You’ve been off for the better part of a year, Dragon”, Wuya retorted. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but _Chase_ learned to mellow out and passed down the stick-in-the-ass mantle to _you_!”

“Please don’t say that”, Dashi said, shutting his eyes at the imagery. “I _cannot_ be more uptight than Chase Young.”

“Well, you are _now_.”

A pause. “This has something to do with the Shen Gong Wu, right?”

When he didn’t answer and only avoided her eyes, Wuya urged. “ _Dashi_?”

“No”, he said, almost immediately. Then, he shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know what to tell you.”

He sighed. “I’ve been doing some extra reading in the scroll room.”

“Restricted section?”, Wuya asked, intrigued. With her undivided attention solely going into magic, she hadn’t had anytime for her favorite pastime. Even the second-hand reviews from Chase stopped after Dragon training got too intense.

“No, regular history”, Dashi said. “Last year, I started reading more about Xiaolin history and how the—how that whole rift with the Heylin happened. Master Young, he got me intrigued with all his stories about the skirmishes of all the old days, you know.”

A pause. “And I read some weird things. Horrible things, actually. Heylin warriors who used to torture and kill and pillage—not for anything, except to cause chaos. Heylin monks who used their magic to know secrets mortals weren’t supposed to know.”

Another pause. “If you read those scrolls before, you’ll know they’re very descriptive and it’s just—it was just too much for me. Master Yi never said anything about that part of history to me.”

Sighing now, Dashi added, with a shake of his head. “Whenever we studied history, our teachers would say the Xiaolin were the ones in the wrong because they were intolerant. They said the Heylin were driven off for simply preaching a new point of view…but that wasn’t it.”

“And _that’s_ why you think Master Yi and the Heylin temple betrayed you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is that not enough for you? A foundation built on several lies makes everything about it a lie, you know. And _that_ was my life…a lie.”

Wuya nodded, taking in the information before shrugging.

At the Heylin temple, she’d liked that they treated everyone equally. Dragons were the same as those who weren’t Dragons and everyone participated in the chores. Magic was accepted and even taught to those who were meant to use it.

There was, however, one minor thing Wuya couldn’t stand during her Exchange. She couldn’t put her finger on it then, but as she saw Dashi earnestly explain his reasons, she now knew. That Heylin idealism was too much to handle.

“You know, the first day I got here, I was told my stay would be temporary”, she began. “Master Chen told me that my father would be coming for me during the next harvest. I’m still here—first lie!”

A pause. “I was also told I could become a warrior. I don’t remember who told me that but someone did and when I told Master Young, he laughed and said it was a possibility. I’ve never been on a mission—second lie!”

Another pause. “Xiaolin history says magic was only used to destroy and kill and you and I have been working on tools that can help people. Master Yi taught me about several kinds of magic. Magic that heals all wounds, magic that helps you communicate with your ancestors and spirits—third lie!”

Sighing now, Wuya crossed her arms. When she was a little girl, there’d been one story she’d heard bits and pieces of and it’d intrigued her to no end. However, once an elder or a monk heard about it circulating, all apprentices would be heavily reprimanded.

When she was fifteen, she and Chase managed to sneak off one of the scrolls from the restricted section of the scroll room. And then and only then, Wuya knew the whole story.

“A few years before I came to the Xiaolin temple”, she began. “There was a warrior who lived here, Mala Mala Jong. One of the best. A talented archer and swordsman who was greatly admired.”

She paused. “One year, as people say, Jong went rogue. He stole half of the temple’s money and a lot of important artifacts and left. He just _did_ and every once in a while, we hear about him ravaging some poorly unprepared village.”

Another pause. “The masters said they didn’t know why he betrayed us, so everyone came up with their own theories. Some say he just left on a whim and some said he was secretly _always_ a bad seed, but I read the scrolls kept of the incident—Dashi, he left because the one person he was training so hard to protect, his little brother, had died. Tortured by mercenaries.”

Wuya shrugged, adding, “Jong was training extra hard in the last period because he was preparing to journey to get his brother from their village but he didn’t have time. And the thing is—the temple knew he didn’t have time. They got a letter and they chose to say nothing to not lose their best archer.”

“I don’t”, Dashi began, quietly. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

“I do”, Wuya said, matter-of-factly. “Everyone lies. Philosophies don’t. Don’t confuse the two.”

“I’m not!”

“And don’t use that as an excuse to turn your back on people who actually care about you—”

“I said I’m _not_.”

“But you’re doing just that”, Wuya retorted. “I bet if I chose Heylin over Xiaolin, you would have cut all ties with me too!”

Stunned, Dashi opened his mouth but for a minute, no words came. “I would never do that to you, you know that.”

“Maybe so”, she said. “But you’ll have to prove it. Write to Master Yi.”

But the days went on and no one but Wuya wrote to Master Yi or to the Heylin temple.

In between those correspondences, she managed to return to her old hobby of reading scrolls from the restricted section, though this time under the guise of borrowing them because a Dragon asked her to get them. And sometimes, Wuya wasn’t even lying.

“See?”, Chase told her over the faint light from the lantern he’d just lit. Even though they were in his room alone, he still felt the need to whisper. “I told you we had female warriors before.”

Wuya peered over the scroll her friend was reading and read for herself. “Liang Ni, master staff-fighter and healer. That’s nice—so your father just hates _me_ then?”

“My father isn’t in charge of warriors or those who go on missions”, the Fire Dragon said, a tad defensively. “Take it up with Master Yu.”

“Like Master Yu doesn’t quiver in fear every time Master Young is in the same room”, Wuya said, rolling her eyes.

“That’s him just paying respect to his old teacher.”

“And that teacher wasn’t a terror to deal with?”

Chase gave her a look. “Look, we’re not going to agree on this. Why don’t you just tell me what you found in your scroll?”

“A lot of meaningless Dragon stuff”, she said, scoffing. “I don’t even know why this is in the restricted section—it’s just a bunch of rules you’ll end up knowing and telling me about anyway!”

Pausing, Wuya raised a knowing eyebrow. “Of course, you could always use this extra knowledge to tell _Guan_ first. He’ll think you’re really smart!”

Hearing his teammate’s name, Chase’s curious expression quickly soured. A scowl Wuya knew all too well replaced it and once it set, it never moved. She sighed.

“What did I do now?”

“Nothing”, the warrior said. “You just proved how much of a forgetful, selfish friend you are. That is, if I can even call you that.”

“You’re being dramatic”, Wuya said, matter-of-factly. “Why? Did you and Guan fight? Last thing I remember is he kissed—”

“Someone could be eavesdropping”, Chase warned, teeth grit. “So _don’t_ even finish that sentence.”

Stupefied, Wuya tired to shrug it off and return to reading her scroll but couldn’t. She’d never concerned herself with romance because, well, she didn’t really have the time and it was all pointless anyway.

But from what she’d heard from Ju and the other maids when she’d joined their conversation after one of them announced a long awaited engagement, kisses were generally a good thing. Especially if they came after a rather long time of implications and meaningful gazes.

“Chase”, Wuya finally began. “Why are you upset? I know I haven’t been the most present lately, but please tell me. If it’s something I can help you with—”

“You can’t help me with anything”, Chase said, matter-of-factly. “No one can.”

“If it’s your father, you know, it’s time you stood up to him.”

“It’s not just my father, Wuya. It’s everyone and it’s not even for any reason you might think of.”

Chase paused. “He and I…we can’t make it work. That’s one of the rules by the way. It’s in that scroll over there—I read it the other day and it just says it clearly. Dragons are held to an even higher standards than monks.”

“Tell me it doesn’t mean what I think it means”, Wuya said, hoping it really wasn’t that. Something about it made her heart break.

“It does”, he said. “No relationships, of any kind, with anyone. No attachments and even our temples could change on a moment’s notice if we grow too attached to a place.”

A pause. He scoffed. “I’ll live my whole life to serve. And I didn’t even _choose_ this fate. Maybe if he was by my side it would have been better, but even that is too much for me to ask.”

“I’m so”, Wuya began, before shaking her head and instinctively wringing her wrists like she did when she was uncomfortable. “I’m so sorry, Chase. You don’t deserve this.”

“You’re right, I don’t”, Chase said, nodding once. “But I suppose you and I are in the same boat.”

“What do you mean?”, she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“You and Dashi”, he said, like it was obvious. “ _Everyone_ knows, you know. I even heard the maids gossip about it and you know, when the maids gossip…”

“The entire world knows”, Wuya finished. Romance _was_ pointless, but she would be a liar if she said she didn’t let the possibility cross her mind once. _Only_ _once_ and never again. “But there’s nothing to gossip about. There’s nothing going on between us. I don’t even have time for…for that!”

“Wuya, I’m blessed with most of my senses. I’ve seen how you two look at each other and I’ve heard how he talks about you—no one was happier when we got our own living quarters than I was because of that.”

A pause. “And what do you mean you don’t have time? What are you always running off doing, anyway?”

Another pause. “You’re always in the scroll room and when you’re not, you disappear. You’re not at the shrine and you don’t go to lessons anymore—what are you spending all this time on, Wuya?”

“I told you I’m reading, studying”, Wuya insisted. “What else would I spend my time on?”

Chase groaned. “Why can’t you just tell me what you hope to achieve by all that studying—you’re not becoming a _nun_ , are you?”

“What if I am?”, she quickly said, trying to avoid other alternatives.

“What if you are”, he repeated, with a condescending look meant to hide his panic. “You do know that Xiaolin nuns don’t live in this temple, right? They go to a temple of their own, away from men”

A pause. “You know you’ll be going back on our promise, if you do this.”

Hearing that, she nodded. All those years ago, when she was just a rookie apprentice, Wuya had met Chase, who was just as young and lonely as she was. They’d both made a promise, when they grew to trust each other.

Once she’d finished her studies at the temple and once Chase had become the Fire Dragon, they would both journey on to look for her family and his mother. They’d be old enough then, they’d both judged.

And now that they were, Wuya could only shrug. “That was a long time ago.”

“But we never stopped hoping”, Chase said. “I may not be able to leave and look for my mother because of my obligations, but you can still look for your family like you always wanted to.”

“Who says I still want that?”, she said. Remembering the cloth doll her father gave her, she shook her head. “I barely remember their faces, Chase. I don’t even remember their names and I don’t recall our village. Maybe that’s for the best.”

Those were all lies, Wuya knew. The only reason she became instant friends with Ju was that Ju was also her mother’s name and that the maid reminded her of a sister.

Wuya’s village, though the name did escape her, was strikingly clear in her head. Off to the north, lying somewhere between where the sun rose and where the winds bellowed heavily.

“It’s not”, Chase said, refusing to acknowledge her words. “It’s not and you’re lying. You’ve been lying about a lot of things, Wuya, and I don’t know why you don’t trust me with them.”

A pause. “But until you do, please don’t lie to me more.”

Though she’d sighed and tried to pretend she was okay, Wuya had a lot of trouble focusing on the scrolls she had to read. Chase’s words kept echoing in her head until she finally read something that made them all stop.

Chase was right. That rule about Dragons and attachments was all there. And so were other things.

‘ _Although we all know Wu Xing states the existence of known elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Metal, and Wood’_ , the scroll read. ‘ _A possibility was made clear to us by certain monks who seem to have witnessed the uncanny; a person controlling the winds like they were an extension of themselves._ ’

_Wind_ , Wuya read. Wind like the air that has been picking up speed whenever she used her magic. But, well…that couldn’t be real, could it? The scroll said ‘possibility’ and anyway, it couldn’t relate to her.

‘ _When the monks asked the stranger how they came to control the winds’_ , Wuya saw as she read the scroll. ‘ _The stranger only answered that they have only begun doing that recently. That the winds picked up following a surge of magic. When asked again, the person affirmed they were a magic user._ ’

That coincidence was too much to ignore. She, too, had felt the winds almost excessively ever since she used her magic. Almost like she unlocked something, deep and unforgotten, inside her. She’d felt whole then. Whole and all too happy.

Taking a look at Chase, intent on reading and ignoring her at the same time, Wuya considered telling him before shaking that thought off. Despite what he said, Chase Young was quite a traditionalist at heart and her questioning being a possible Dragon of a hypothetical element would not bode well with him.

Guan then, Wuya thought. They were never as close of friends as they pretended to be, simply for Chase’s sake, but they were still friends and realistically she could tell him about this if she wanted to confide in someone who wasn’t as much of a rule-stickler as Chase was.

Nodding, the young witch agreed with herself. She was going to look for Guan later to share her theory, though she’d try to leave out the magic part. She wasn’t going to tell Chase or Dashi.

Definitely _not_ Dashi after he’d all but told her to start limiting her magic usage so she could eventually cease to use it all. _I thought about what you said_ , he’d told her, looking more and more like a stranger with those Dragon robes, _and I read some more about magic—it’s good and bad but its harms outweigh its benefits_.

Hearing that, Wuya had only scoffed and left without saying a word. She gave it a day or two at most before Dashi went back to his senses. He was always coming up with ideas for new Shen Gong Wu and that needed magic. He wouldn’t just turn his back on that.

At least, that was what she’d thought. Days later, when Dashi had called everyone to display the Wu, he took full responsibility for them and the magic that created them.

“I regret using magic”, Dashi had said. “I deeply, sorrowfully regret it but it was encouraged at the Heylin temple and so I used it to create these. The Shen Gong Wu. I think they’ll be of great help to us, masters.”

Master Chen had agreed, without much deliberation, like he usually did when the matter was about the Water Dragon.

“Heylin have always proved nefarious in their ways”, Master Chen said, resignedly. “However, as long as you don’t use any more magic, Dragon, I suppose we can incorporate these trinkets after a cleansing ceremony.”

A pause. “Some things can be beneficial, even if harmful in origin and that can also be the same the other way around.”

What followed after this Heylin artifact revelation was an uproar that was felt in every part of the Xiaolin Temple. _Can you believe it_ , everyone whispered when no elder was around, _the Xiaolin Water Dragon used Heylin magic!_

Much to her chagrin, Wuya had to endure that. She couldn’t say that magic had no discernable origin and that it wasn’t even an evil thing. That bothered her.

What bothered her more, however, was that Dashi had taken the credit to all her work and expected her to be grateful for it.

“If I said the Wu were created by me _and_ _you_ ”, Dashi had said. “It would have been completely different, Wuya. I’m a Dragon with a Heylin background. No one would bat an eye at this, but you’re a witch. You grew up _here_ and you became a witch. Would Master Chen approve?”

“No”, Wuya said. He had a point but something felt sinister about it. Like he didn’t do this for her sake but to satisfy an urge of his own. “But you could have told me what you were going to do. You could have told me why and you could have privately thanked me for all my work.”

She paused. “That was blatant theft, Dashi, and they thanked _you_ for it!”

“I didn’t intend to steal your credit or your hard work”, Dashi said, after a beat. This time, seeing her angry sadness, he seemed sincere. “I’m sorry, I truly didn’t. But I meant what I said, I just wanted to protect you.”

A pause. “Master Young doesn’t like you very much, you know, and he’s always whispering in Master Chen’s ear.”

“I know he doesn’t”, Wuya said, rolling her eyes. “And I know you only wanted to help…but next time you want to protect me from something, at least notify me. Especially if it involves my magic.”

Though he wanted to say something, probably about her magic, Dashi bit his tongue and shut his mouth and instead bowed his head. _It’d been so long_ , Wuya thought, but he finally looked like the Dashi she knew.

“I will. I’m sorry, Wuya.”

“Apologize again”, Wuya said, casually opening her arms to give that boy a hug, not quite noticing him stiffen in her embrace. “And I will give you something to apologize for, Dragon.”

And that was the last time she’d seen that old Dashi. The next time Dashi came to speak to her was after he and Chase and Guan returned from their first mission, the one they went on days after Chase, the youngest, had turned nineteen.

After the fourth letter asking for help because outlaw Mala Mala Jong was back again, wreaking havoc in the nearby towns, Master Chen finally sent the Xiaolin Dragons on their first mission, stopping him for good.

They failed, however, and returned with scars and bruises and Guan took weeks to recover from nearly dying. Dashi wanted them to go back immediately but Master Chen told him they needed to think it through for the next time.

And think, Dashi did. “I want you to help me”, he told Wuya one late night after his return. “That warrior, we’ll never defeat him. Not in a thousand years.”

“He’s a more experienced fighter, Dashi”, Wuya said. “It’s normal. You and your teammates haven’t fought a single person whose job was to not hurt you too much. Just train harder.”

“Training wouldn’t do it”, Dashi said, adamantly. “He’s too powerful, Wuya. He even uses some magic—none of us will be able to stop him, not now. And the people of these towns need us _now_.”

A pause. Sighing, he gave her a serious look. “We can only trap him for good but for that, we’ll need his heart.”


	6. Earth, or the Beginning of the End

_Present day_

In fairness, it wasn’t Wuya’s intention to wander around the temple. At first, when she’d told that sorry excuse for a temple guardian that she was going to the bathroom, she’d really meant it.

After wasting some time there, though, Wuya couldn’t bear to go back into the tearoom with the nostalgic dragon to pretend that they were waiting for Raimundo, who used that phone call as an excuse as a chance to escape.

She’d decided she wanted another tour of the temple, a private one, and hey, if that led to her finding a way into the upgraded vault then so be it. Wuya had only passed the kitchen again and made her way through a series of loops into the back courtyard when she stumbled upon the grownup Earth Dragon.

Sadly, Clay spotted her. “Howdy, Wuya! What’s up with ya?”

Smiling politely, Wuya debated whether she should entertain the potential conversation or not. Clay had been the only monk she’d never been truly interested in knowing. She supposed knowing Guan, before and after he made Master Monk, was enough to sour anyone on Earth Dragons, though.

Well, Wuya mused. Maybe talking to him wouldn’t be so bad. After all it’d looked like he had changed, hair two shades darker and clearly visible without his trademark hat.

He looked so odd, she couldn’t help her curiosity. She couldn’t help but hearing Jack’s old voice in her head either— _I thought he’d be balding by now_.

“Hello, Clay”, Wuya finally said, walking towards him. “How are you?”

Clay shrugged. “Pretty good, I suppose. And you?”

Pausing, the cowboy bit his lip like he’d just realized what he’d said.

“I’m sorry, I heard about the coma and I know you might not be in the best of moods to talk about it.”

“Oh, no, I’m perfectly okay”, Wuya said through grit teeth. Out of everyone, she didn’t think Omi would have been the one to spread rumors but there it was. If she the word coma one more time— “It was very…refreshing.”

“I mean, it’s been eleven years”, Clay said, snorting despite himself. “If that wasn’t all that and a side of fries, you should get a refund.”

“I see you’ve been working on your sense of humor while I was gone”, the witch said. Raising an eyebrow, she took on the tone many of her mentors took when chastising her. “Have you been working on anything else?”

Giving her a doubletake, the cowboy blanched before he scoffed and laughed. “Jeez, don’t you sound just like my Daddy on his nice days!”

He paused again and crossed his arms, a curious expression on his face. “Why do you wanna know?”

“If you don’t want to answer me”, Wuya began, a little puzzled and more than a little bit peeved. “You could just say so.”

Clay’s eyes widened. “Oh no, no, it’s not that. It’s just—I didn’t think you’d want to know, is all. Uh, I’m not especially great in making small talk.”

“Neither am I, believe me”, she said, shrugging. “But I’m learning how, I guess. I’d start myself but as you know I haven’t really done anything.”

“Eh, you can say everything’s fine with me. It’s going, you know”, the grownup Dragon said. “I did college then I helped out a little with the ranch.”

Wuya’s nose instinctively scrunched. “Colorful place, I remember.”

“It was cool for a while but…I just didn’t see myself there”, Clay said. “So I set out to start my own dojo—it’s currently struggling but we’re managing it.”

“Sounds like you and the Fire Dragon have that in common”, she said, tone a little bit snide.

Sympathetically, he winced. “ _Oof_ , you brought that up with Kimiko? I love her to death but that’s just one topic I’d never bring up with her—she rambles about it a lot; it’s her way of channeling her feelings, you know.”

“And if I ask you to tell me about your dojo, how much will _you_ end up talking?”, Wuya asked. It was true, she’d been sent into a headache by Kimiko’s talking but she didn’t really mind it all that much.

“I dunno, as much as I can without being too annoying, I guess”, Clay said, shrugging good-naturedly.

He paused. “The dojo is doing good, like we’re struggling a bit financially but it’s coming together. We mostly teach Tai Chi there, me and my co-owner.”

Another pause. “See? Didn’t bite your head off all that much.”

“I appreciate that”, Wuya said, allowing him a small smile. Now, her curiosities went somewhere else, so she began, “So, Raimundo told me you almost got married.”

“Of course, he did”, Clay said, rolling his eyes. He grumbled something under his breath, a curse. “But yeah, yeah, I did. Proposed and everything but it just wasn’t the right time.”

A pause. “Or the right guy. I was a bit too young to jump the gun like that—sometimes, I still think about it and think ‘jeez, how stupid was I?’”.

“Oh”, Wuya said, pursing her lips. She didn’t really know what to say now. She’d never really been in this kind of situation before, except that one time she’d spoken to Chase about the whole Guan thing.

Faintly, she remembered that one old romantic comedy Jack had harassed her into seeing. When something like this had happened, the main character’s friend cooed and apologized.

“I’m sorry…I guess.”

“Oh, don’t be”, Clay said, raising a confused eyebrow. “If we hadn’t broken up, neither of us would have been happy. Right now, I’m actually seeing this guy, Alex—he’s so wonderful I thank God everyday I didn’t end up with anyone else.”

Wuya nodded. “Is he here, this Alex?”

“Nah, he couldn’t make it today ‘cause of work and all”, he said. “But he’s coming around the weekend, so Omi’s been biting my head off about that since last Tuesday.”

Seeing her confused expression, Clay explained, “Uh, we’ve been here for a while now, to get everything ready, and we’re planning to stay put a while before the happy couple leaves for their honeymoon. Just a reunion thing.”

“I see”, Wuya said, nodding. It was kind of impressive that the Dragons still kept in touch as they aged and went their different ways, but something inside her felt bitter at the realization.

Choosing to stay quiet for some time, the Heylin witch observed as a few hurried workers moved a few things around and rushed between halls. Fiddling his thumbs beside her, the Earth Dragon quickly grew uncomfortable with the silence.

“So, have you tried getting in touch with Jack Spicer since you woke up?”, Clay asked, making conversation. “Or any of your other rent-a-minions?”

Huh, Wuya thought, putting her hands on her hips. Although she had thought of her sometimes-accomplices, she’d never really tried contacting them. “No, not really. You know where he is?”

“The entire world knows where he is”, the grownup warrior said, rolling his eyes. “Jack’s kinda dominating the world right now.”

“He is?”, the witch asked, blanching. That couldn’t be right. “And you let it happen?”

“Well, he’s this corrupt big shot and everybody knows who he is—even fucking Bezos is in his shadow sometimes”, Clay said. “And we can’t do much to solve the entire world’s capitalism problem, so…”

“I see”, Wuya said, admittedly a little relieved—and surprisingly, a tad proud—at this revelation. She supposed she could plan a visit to Jack’s sometime soon, now that she is awake. “So he _is_ ruling the world after all.”

She paused, spotting a stray cat wandering the far end of the courtyard. “And Katnappe?”

“Last I heard, high-end art thief”, the cowboy said, not missing a beat.

Musing, Wuya thought about who else to ask about. There were not too many Heylins whose whereabouts she wanted to know. Vlad had been unresponsive since before her nap and Le Mime had been utterly useless.

She supposed she could ask about Hannibal, but just mentioning that old bean summoned his presence and she wasn’t coherent enough to deal with him yet. A light bulb went off in her head now.

“Tubbimura then?”, Wuya asked. Though she never cared about him, she couldn’t deny he’d been somewhat useful when he was paid well.

“Oh, that one”, Clay said, raising both eyebrows. “He’s Xiaolin now. Weird I know, but I suppose that’s good for us.”

A pause. “You know, Tubbimura was actually a funny story. Like, I had never thought of him as something other than Heylin but one day he shows up and wants to change. Showed me a thing or two, about how there’s no expiry date on changing alignments.”

“I supposed”, Wuya said, already seeing where this was going. Dragons knew nothing of subtlety, it seemed, and Omi’s energy to wanting to change others was apparently infectious.

“Y’know”, Clay began, as the witch internally groaned. “It’s weird but I never really forgot that showdown when you had the Yo-Yo and momentarily went Xiaolin.”

He paused, shrugging. “I mean, good looks natural on you, Wuya. It’s like you’re meant to look that way—a good witch, real fairy godmother type.”

Rolling her eyes, she couldn’t really hold it back anymore. Wuya scoffed and let Clay know exactly what she thought of his words.

“Is this wedding a front to get me to switch sides or is there a ceremony to be actually held today?”

“Nah, it’s a real ceremony”, Clay said, smiling unabashed. “I’m sorry, but Omi kinda bullied us into at least trying. He said the coma might have changed you a little.”

“Kimiko didn’t even try”, Wuya said, raising an eyebrow. “Let me guess, not on board?”

Clay scoffed. “Not by a mile. Neither am I, to be honest, but it’s O’s wedding day, y’know.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not too offended”, the witch said. “I won’t hex any future children or current ones—I don’t think I have enough powers for that, either way.”

Pausing, Wuya stayed quiet for a while and tried not to think about the person her head wanted her to think about. She still didn’t like Earth Dragons, certainly not the one in her old memories.

She didn’t want to think about how the current one talked like him either. That might actually make her miss him when he was the way he was with her. A friend.

Clearing her throat, Wuya decided she needed to be somewhere else for a while. So, she used the same old trick. “I’m going to the bathroom, Gu—Clay.”

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

It’d been one unnaturally cold day in spring when the friendship Wuya and Guan had built over the years ended. Everything would change now, she’d only thought after that tedious conversation ended, not knowing whether it’d been her gut or foresight talking.

But that was sometime after Dashi’s insane idea, the one that needed Mala Mala Jong’s heart to work.

Wuya had not felt the words leaving her mouth then. “Are you finally out of your mind, Dashi? What you’re suggesting is—”

“Necessary”, Dashi interrupted, jaw set. “Over the line and sinister but necessary.”

He didn’t say anything for a while and Wuya, despite it being a nice warm night, shivered. She could feel his words still in the air between them. She could imagine Jong’s heart and the spell it’d need. She could imagine the Wu.

Suddenly, she _knew_ that spell even though she hadn’t a moment before. That was predictable. In one of Master Yi’s many letters, he’d said that there was an infinite number of spells out there. _And I cannot teach them all to you_ , the teacher wrote, _but never fear—once you need to know a spell, it’ll manifest itself in your mind._

But in what world would Wuya need to know how to trap a man’s soul inside his heart?

“You said before that magic is evil”, Wuya said, steadying her voice and looking her friend— _no_ , the Water Dragon in the eye. He didn’t seem like her friend for now. “And I disagreed with you. But this, _this_ , Dashi? This is the _real_ evil. I can’t—”

“You _must_ ”, Dashi said, firmly. Her words went through one ear and came out the other, she knew. “This can’t happen again, Wuya. The villages, the people we’ve seen—they’re in _ruins_. That man must be finished or this will continue and those people will suffer even more.”

A pause. And the Dragon’s face gradually morphed back into Dashi’s sorrowful one. “We don’t have much time.”

Another pause. “I promise you this will never happen again. You even know what I feel about magic, it’s just—we need this one. Never again, I promise.”

“I’ll see what I can do”, Wuya said, because there was nothing else she could say. Something told her that that promise was nothing but a lie.

Making the Emperor Scorpion took Wuya and Dashi three days of work and barely any sleep, to the suspicions and whispers of everyone from apprentices to monks to maids to stable-boys. If Master Chen noticed any of this, though, he’d simply pretend not to hear and would walk away.

Wuya wasn’t there to see clear-cut incidents, so she couldn’t verify it. But Chase had told her that this happened and Ju confirmed it, so she couldn’t dismiss these stories as rumors. Even if she’d wished that was all they were.

She’d wished many things too, actually. Wuya had wanted nothing more than to forget the Emperor Scorpion ever existed. For the first two days, Dashi had designed the shape and poured his intent and magic into the Wu, while she refined it and added some of her own magic.

_This won’t work with magic alone_ , Wuya thought. She didn’t know why she’d thought or known that but she knew it was true. For this Wu to work, Wuya would have to give it something more.

In the scrolls she’d read since her possible wind element discovery, Wuya had read a few Dragon-related things she knew weren’t meant for her to read. The more she’d read into them, she’d doubted they’d be the kind of scrolls Master Chen would allow his Dragons to read either.

The techniques described were powerful and difficult and only really available to Dragons who’d mastered their elements to the furthest degree. And although those scrolls were barely decipherable and almost falling apart, Wuya knew magic described when she’d read it.

And so, trusting her magic and the winds around her, the young witch tried the technique and tethered it to the Wu with a spell. Wuya felt the rush of the wind against her face suddenly, stronger than she’d ever felt—it wasn’t scary, though. It was _exhilarating_! She felt like she was flying.

That’d been the third and final day of making the Emperor Scorpion and Wuya wouldn’t get to celebrate it. Already shaking when she’d started the spell, she’d blacked out immediately after it was over. She woke up a day later.

Only Ju would stay to talk to Wuya when she woke up. Despite her imbalance and lack of coherence, Wuya still noticed that. She’d noticed the healers in the infirmary didn’t look her in the eye when they told her she still needed to rest and even the monks who came to check weren’t all too chatty.

“What happened while I was out?”

Ju shrugged, pretending like she didn’t know. Wuya gave her a look and didn’t stop staring until the maid gave up.

“Stop that, Wuya”, Ju said, avoiding her eyes. “I’ll tell you, just—just don’t say I’m the one who told.”

“Do I look like a child, Ju? Of course, I won’t tell”, Wuya said, rolling her eyes.

The maid took a deep breath before fixing the witch with a steady gaze. “That room, where you and Master Dashi were, reeks.”

“Excuse me?”, Wuya said, almost straining herself in her confusion. “What does that mean?”

“It reeks, you know, it smells like—I can’t explain it but it smells sinister”, Ju said, struggling to explain well. “Yesterday, when Aunt Jin passed by it, she couldn’t bear to go in to clean. She just couldn’t.”

A pause. “So I tried and Li tried and even little Tao tried. Tao, actually, uh, fainted and she hasn’t woken up yet.”

“Is that her over on the other side of the room?”, Wuya asked, in a quiet voice, barely pointing.

Ju nodded. “We couldn’t risk having you two sleep next to each other. We’re not sure if it’s infectious, but…, you know, safety—we think it has something to do with Master Dashi’s Heylin magic.”

“Magic?”

“Well…he did use it in that room, didn’t he? To make a weapon. Everyone is saying so.”

Wuya shrugged and brushed it off. Smiling, she gave Ju a look. “Everyone think it’s infectious to be near me and yet you’re still here?”

“Yes, of course”, Ju said, playfully hitting her arm. “You’re my friend.”

Pausing, the maid slapped her forehead now. “ _Damn_ —I forgot!”

“Forgot what?”, Wuya asked, curiously.

“Master Dashi, he told me to tell you something”, Ju said. “When you woke up. He says you shouldn’t worry because he knows that thing you didn’t tell him.”

_The spell_ , Wuya finished inside her head. Once she nodded, the maid continued. “He also says there’s something else, something important you two should talk about. Sh—should I continue?”

“No”, Wuya said, knowing she didn’t want to hear it. It didn’t take a genius to see what had been so obvious, she had to ignore it twice as hard.

Dashi hadn’t been exactly subtle. But with his new outlook on magic and the odd, strict personality he sometimes took on, Wuya didn’t want to hear him out. She already knew, either way. _If he was still the same old Dashi, I would have considered it_.

Wuya added, “He can tell me what he wants when he’s here.”

“You have a point”, Ju said, nodding. A bemused smile crept on her face then. “Master Dashi is kind of handsome, though, don’t you think?”

Wuya didn’t quite care about Ju’s last teasing question. When the Dragons returned from their mission, they were injured and Dashi was not handsome. His hands were bloody. Guan had gashes and a difficulty walking, while Chase suffered a few cuts and nursed a broken arm.

Despite their injuries, the Xiaolin Dragons returned victorious and despite their smiles, Wuya noticed the grimness beneath them.

“It was that _thing_ Dashi made”, Chase told her the next night, in a low voice, when they were alone in his room. He looked too tired to speak but still did anyway. “That small scorpion toy of his! We were trying to fight Jong fairly but then Dashi took it out of his robes and used it.”

He paused. Peering into his face, Wuya could see the memories clear in Chase’s eyes. He looked haunted, like he’d seen a terrible monster and couldn’t describe it.

“That thing tore Jong’s heart from his insides. It was still beating when it was on the ground in front of us, but by the time Dashi picked it up, it cooled. It turned—turned into something metallic. Unreal, even.”

Another pause. “And then Dashi used it, the heart. Everything that he put it on would move even if it was still before. Then, he made Guan use it, then me. He said we needed to use these Wu for our missions.”

“I’m so”, Wuya began, not knowing where to go with the sentence. Disgusted? Confused? Sad? “Sorry, Chase.”

“I’m sorrier for you”, Chase said, shaking his head and sounding both angry and upset. He shut his eyes, trying to block the memory. “You were in the room when he made that _thing_!”

Where Chase was open to talking, though, Guan wasn’t. _Just leave me alone for now, Wuya. Please—I need time_. And so, Wuya left him alone and went for the root of this issue, Dashi.

But that was easier said than done. For the first few days since his return, the Water Dragon avoided Wuya like a plague. He couldn’t avoid her if she visited him in his bedroom late at night, though.

“Wuya, _oh_ ”, Dashi said, once he slid the door open. His eyes were shifty and he seemed nervous, unlike himself. “Did you do something different with your hair?”

“You tore a man’s heart out and turned it to a Wu”, Wuya said, by way of greeting. “A little hypocritical for someone who thinks all magic is evil.”

“It was necessary at the time.”

“Was it? Dashi—”

“I know, I _know_ what you’re going to say but that’s the last time for any of this. It’ll never happen again.”

But it wasn’t the last time. Soon after the Dragons’ recovery, Dashi spun the same old story again. _We need this, Wuya_. _It’s a necessity_. _Our missions call for it; the people will need it_. _It will bring peace_.

From those excuses, Dashi and Wuya ended up making the Wushan Geyser to erase memories, the Sphere of Yun to trap powerful enemies and harness their powers, the Mosaic Scale for specific soul-trapping purposes, and the Kazuso Atom for simple destruction.

There were more, though, all equally as harmful. The most harmful, however, had been the Sapphire Dragon, which didn’t go over well and nearly killed them—it _would_ have killed them if that hadn’t been Dojo’s first day of fire-breathing.

“Just what are you trying to pull, Dashi?”, Chase had yelled, when the Sapphire Dragon was once again covered in soot and unactive. “Are you _trying_ to have us all killed? Stop making your underworld contraptions and actually try to be a _Dragon_!”

The Fire Dragon had had every right to say what he’d said then. Dashi’s Wu, because Wuya was not about to claim them, were always one step away from killing them all these days.

They’d come a long way from the Ants in the Pants and it took a toll on all of them. Even Guan, with his extraordinary patience, was getting fed up.

But the person all that heavy magic took the greatest toll on was both Wuya, emotionally and magically. She’d suspected it’d started to take a toll on her physically too and confirmed it when Guan pulled her aside to talk.

“You look…different”, Guan began, as awkward and gentle as ever. “There’s something in your face that doesn’t seem like you but I can’t put my finger on it.”

Wuya shrugged. “I didn’t notice.”

“But I did”, the Earth Dragon had said. Giving the girl a long analytical look, he casually started. “The last mission we were on, up north, we passed the remains of my hometown village. I never told you about my village before, did I?”

Though she’d gotten full details from Chase before, Wuya shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

“I hope you don’t mind then because I need to talk to someone and Chase has been acting a little off”, Guan said, apologetically. Wuya urged him to continue.

Guan’s village sounded exactly like her own, except where hers was perfectly surrounded by mountains, his was near a river. The houses were modest and the people were friendly and every household knew the next.

It was said that any passerby could simply set up root in that village and the people would treat them like they’d been there forever. This perfect hometown and its ideal memories, though, harbored a ticking time-bomb, according to Guan.

“My sister, the story lies with her”, he explained. “We lost our parents a long time ago but we lived in a house with our father’s parents and an uncle. We were happy for a long while but my sister started getting sick years ago—her sickness was odd.”

“Odd how?”, Wuya asked, tensing a little. Guan had mentioned that he’d been hunting with his uncle once or twice and now it felt like he was cornering her like prey.

“She’d be fine one day but the next she’d look ragged”, Guan said. “Some days, she’d talk and talk like she wanted to do nothing else but on others, we wouldn’t get a word from her. She was always in her room, always poring over something odd.”

A pause. “It was all present when we looked for it, the sickness. It left marks on her hands.”

“Hands? What sickness is that?”

“Magic.”

Wuya blanched. Carefully, she hid her hands behind her back. “Magic?”

“Yes”, Guan said. “Eventually, we couldn’t help her because she wouldn’t listen. My sister let herself succumb to it and my grandmother tried to talk to her and…and my sister couldn’t help it. She blew everything up, the village included. No one survived but me.”

She kept her face still. “And that’s when you came to the temple?”

“And that’s when I came to the temple”, he said. “And that’s why you shouldn’t let yourself succumb to _your_ magic, Wuya.”

“How do you even know—”

“I’ve seen this firsthand”, Guan said, cutting her off. “Your face grows more weathered when you use it and returns to normal when you’re not, but the magic lingers. And your hands are scarred more often than not.”

Wuya crossed her arms. “Dashi is the one using magic.”

“Dashi is lying”, Guan said, simply. “And I don’t know why, but he is. You need to stop this before you turn monstrous, Wuya. Magic corrupts.”

“So does power”, Wuya found herself saying, despite the fact that she wanted nothing more than to leave that conversation. “We’ve learned countless stories of Dragons who went rogue and abused their powers. Does that stop you from using yours?”

“No”, he said. “Because that’s different.”

“Different? How? Please enlighten me.”

“For one thing”, Guan said, jaw set. “I’m meant to use my powers because that’s my destiny. And it’s a destiny I’ve been training for.”

A pause. “And I’m not using the earth to bring sinister things into the world.”

Knowing he was referring to the Scorpion and the Heart, Wuya blanched. That was not fair. “Dashi was the one who asked—”

“How many times are you going to blame everything on Dashi? You’re an adult, Wuya, a _woman_.”

“I _am_ an adult”, she said. “And he’s been giving me reasons, pushing me to think that if I don’t help him, everything will be lost and it’ll be _my_ fault. I’m not making these Wu because I want to—I’m not…bad.”

It was a weak reply, Wuya knew, but it was one, nonetheless.

“ _Hmm_ ”, Guan muttered, giving her an unconvinced look. He wasn’t buying it. “You should know I’ll keep my eye on, you, Wuya.”

“I expected that”, she said. They’d come a long way from them growing a tentative friendship to him openly accusing and suspecting her. “But can I ask you something before you go, Guan?”

Guan raised an eyebrow. He’d known as much as she did that their friendship was more or less over.

“What is it? Is it about Chase?”

“No”, Wuya began, a little hesitant. She didn’t know if she should say this, certainly not to Guan, but here it went. “I’ve read something, a scroll from the restricted section.”

Guan, not seeing anything new, shrugged. “And?”

“And I’ve read something about Dragons, their elements. Something about how they’re not only five, but maybe six.”

“Six elements”, the Earth Dragon asked, intrigued. “That’s unusual. Everyone knows the Dragons’ elements align with the Wu Xing elements—fire, wood, earth, metal, water. What else is there?”

“Wind”, Wuya said. She could see his expression cold, but she explained. “The scrolls I read mentioned the possibilities of Wind Dragons and I think there’s some truth in them.”

“I mean, it’s certainly a theory”, Guan said. “But a theory is only that until it’s proven.”

“Yeah, I know”, she said. “I think it might be true because I have proof, though.”

“And that is…?”

“Me.”

When Guan said nothing for quite some time, Wuya thought he hadn’t heard her. Before she could open her mouth, though, he’d turned and stared her in the eye.

“You, a Dragon?”

“Yes, possibly”, she said, unwavering. This had been the first time she’d shared the theory and out loud it sounded real.

Guan gestured vaguely. “How did you know?”

“Because of my magic”, Wuya said, whisperingly. “I read in the scrolls that this type of Dragon only activates their powers when they use magic. Of course, it can happen beforehand but magic amplifies it, you know.”

A pause. “Wind Dragons would be more susceptible to magic and they’d use it as something that makes up for the lack of—”

“This makes sense to you, I assume”, Guan said. “Please enlighten me as to how.”

“Well—”

“Wood feeds Fire”, the Dragon said, reciting. “Fire produces Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal collects Water, and Water nourishes Wood.”

A pause. “Where does Wind fit into that, tell me?”

“Wind brings life”, Wuya said, trying to keep herself collected. “Just like magic does—it’s always present.”

“And harming, with storms and hurricanes.”

“But helping even more”, she retorted. “It makes us breathe.”

“It doesn’t make sense, Wuya”, Guan said, after a pause. He looked her in the eye now. “Please don’t go into this any further and I’d advise you to keep from magic, too. It won’t end well for anyone.”

He’d left here to stand alone in the courtyard then and went inside, with both of them fully knowing this would be the last time they’d be friends. Wuya shut her eyes and sighed.

She couldn’t help herself from remembering Guan as the young boy who’d came to the temple a long time ago, shy and wary of even his shadow.

Because he’d told them his village was destroyed in a forest fire, it’d taken him some time to talk to Chase, who was meant to be the Fire Dragon. And then it took him more time to learn how to talk to Wuya because he didn’t know how to talk to girls.

Once again, it’d felt like Wuya was saying goodbye.

Despite the Earth Dragon’s warnings, Wuya did not actually stop using her magic. She just got a lot more careful about hiding it.

She started practicing and playing around with it late in the night now, when no one was up and in the woods, where no one would follow. It’d be quiet and she made sure she was quieter. And when Dashi came with his ideas, Wuya tried to postpone them or tell him to meet her in the nearby hill.

And yet, somehow, Guan found out about Wuya’s continuing use of magic. And so did everyone after him. If there was one thing about Guan, she had to admit he’d stuck with his word. He said there’d be consequences and he meant it.

That was why, despite her fears and racing heart and frothing rage, Wuya couldn’t fault him when he decided to tell everyone about her theory.

“I know I interrupted your chores and studies but I summoned you all here for a reason”, Guan began, looking even more rigid with that expression on his face. His eyes passed over the gathering monks and masters with surprising ease. “But it’s been brought to my attention that we could be wrong about there only being five elements.”

Hearing that, Wuya froze. He couldn’t be about to say what she’d told him. He wouldn’t do that to her, like this, would he?

Out of the corner of her eye, she snuck a look at Chase and Dashi, who she’d been sitting with earlier. The former looked confused and skeptical while the later was being intentionally hard to read though she’d sensed his nervousness.

Master Young made his opinion quickly known. “That’s ridiculous! We all know how many elements there are out there and saying anything else is simply untrue. And if you’re saying this—”

“Then I have to have proof, I know”, Guan said, nodding. “It’s been brought to my attention that someone apparently has evidence to this theory.”

“Someone”, Master Chen repeated, narrowing his eyes. The old man had been growing sicker and frailer by the day, but still made his authority clear. “You have found someone who knows of a sixth element?”

“Yes, and they also seem to think that they’re a Dragon.”

“A Dragon of a sixth element?”, Master Chen said. His face had rapidly changed from intrigued to skeptical. “Who is this person and what’s that element?”

“Well, the element is wind”, Guan said, shrugging. “And that person—”

“Is me”, Wuya said, interrupting her old friend and taking a step forward.

Already, she could see Chase’s eyes widen with shock and betrayal at her reveal. From the curse she’d heard Dashi utter, she knew he was blindsided too.

“You, what?”, Master Young said, sharing a look with Master Chen. “A Wind Dragon? Do you hear how ridiculous that sounds, Wuya? Wind isn’t even a real element.”

“It is, though”, Wuya said. “And I have proof, I read that scroll that says it’s a possibility.”

“And in what world does ‘possibility’ mean that same thing ‘true and proven’?”, Master Young asked, scoffing a little. After a beat, he gave his son a look. “I take it you had something to do with this?”

Chase moved his betrayed eyes from his father to Wuya. “No, Master Young. I’m just as surprised as you are.”

“We’re all pretty…caught off-guard with this information”, Dashi said, struggling to find his voice. “But I think Wuya’s a little confused about this, Masters—she’d been reading a lot and assisting me when I worked the Shen Gong Wu so maybe that confused—”

“I’m not confused”, Wuya retorted, sending him a glare. “Not in the slightest. This is the clearest I’ve ever been. And I said I have proof, just let me prove myself then.”

Murmurs and whispers filled the room after this and the young witch felt the tension in her bones. If it was up to Master Young, he’d probably send her away from the temple. Thankfully, it wasn’t. At least not until Master Chen’s retirement.

“Fine”, Master Chen said, resignedly sighing. “Show us your proof then, Wuya.”

And so, Wuya did. Well, she tried actually. Despite how loud the winds were blowing in her ears and playing around her hands, she couldn’t seem to grasp them. She knew they were there and yet they never answered her.

Panicking, Wuya tried to keep herself in check. It was true, she probably should have practiced her wind-touch more than once but she felt like she could do it. She closed her eyes and tried her hardest to concentrate. Nothing seemed to be happening, but then—

“Wait, that ornament! It moved!”

Wuya opened her eyes and saw that some object in the distant had been moved. It was now hovering slightly but it didn’t hold for long and stayed still soon after. She gave Master Chen a small bow.

“If wind isn’t a real element and I’m not a Dragon”, she began, tentatively. “Then how would you…”

“How would I explain that?”, Master Chen continued, scratching his jaw. “Good question, indeed.”

Guan made his presence known again. He was not happy in the slightest. “Oh, that one’s easy, Master Chen. It’s the witchcraft.”

And that was when all hell broke loose.

If it seemed like everyone had avoided Wuya before as a precaution to lingering Dashi magic, it’d been amplified by a tenfold now. It turned out it was much different dealing with a magically-inclined Dragon than a full-blown witch.

Even Ju had limited their contact after Guan’s reveal. _The maids—they have formed some opinions and this could cost me my job, I hope you understand_ , she’d said. And Wuya agreed. Not because she understood. Wuya didn’t understand anything these days, apparently.

She didn’t understand why Ju would stop being her friend, but she also didn’t understand why Guan would betray her trust like that. They were not friends, she’d known, but that didn’t mean he could betray her.

_Then again_ , Wuya thought. He would definitely consider this the greater good, to nip this in the bud before it goes further. And so he did.

Now, Chase shut down all attempts at her conversation and left every room once she’d entered it. Now, Ju avoided her like she’d be hexed. Now, even the elders stayed clear of her until they figured out what to do with her.

The only person who made any attempt to talk to her was Dashi, who came—for once—sympathetic and understanding. For once, he’d kept that ‘ _I told you so’_ for himself and tried to be her friend, which she appreciated.

“You should write to the Heylin Temple”, Dashi had told her once, rather unpredictably. “This one won’t understand you, Wuya—you need to know if the other one will.”

Wuya gave him a look. “I haven’t written to Master Yi in a while and…didn’t you—I thought you had some interesting thoughts on the Heylin philosophy.”

“I do; it’s awful”, he said, casually shrugging. His eyes remained concerned, though. “But it’s where you’d feel safe, I think. They’re open about magic, so maybe they’d be open about this Wind element stuff.”

A pause. “Just try it. Please.”

Wuya didn’t know if it was the asking or the pleading look in Dashi’s eyes, but she did write a letter to Master Yi that day.

She’d been adamant and clear about her theory and situation, all full of expectations for Master Yi’s answer. But it came back like something out of Master Chen’s throat. _You’re overreaching and the elements are set—having magic doesn’t mean unlocking a new one_.

“I’m sorry”, Dashi had said when she told him, a week later. By that time, she knew she looked like a mess but it seemed like Dashi hadn’t been sleeping either.

Wuya shrugged. “I’m sorry too. I’m ostracized everywhere, but it’s not like it’s new.”

She didn’t like dwelling about it, so she proposed the idea of calling it an early night. At that, Dashi grabbed her hand and gave her a look followed by an ‘I _don’t think so’_ expression.

“What are you doing?”

“Trust me on this”, he said. “There’s someone you should meet and I think any distraction right now will do.”

He paused then smiled brightly. “You’ll love her, I swear.”

That person Dashi wanted her to meet turned out to be Xia, a little girl who’d just been dropped off at the temple by her father, who insisted on staying the first night with his daughter.

Talking and playing with the temple’s newest addition, Wuya felt lighter but that lightness only lasted for a moment. She couldn’t help but suspect the side-talks Master Young and Xia’s father had while she and Dashi played with Xia.

Wuya didn’t need to think twice about what they were talking about. It was pretty clear in little Xia’s eyes, hazel and although unlike Guan’s, just as earthy. And even if it wasn’t, then Wuya could see it in Xia’s father’s beaming pride.

She could smell it on her, the wood. Just like she could smell the seawater on Dashi even when he was dry, and the smoke whenever Chase passed, and the muted earth when Guan entered a room. It was too strong not to smell, but Dashi didn’t seem to notice.

_Maybe Master Young won’t notice too_ , Wuya wished. Looking back at him, though, it seemed like the elder did notice. He’d been smiling too. It didn’t take long for Wuya’s discomfort to turn into resentment.


	7. Hannibal

_Present day_

Lingering around the bathroom, in case someone showed up, Wuya found herself rather bored with everything.

From a few passing monks, she’d heard that the whole reason the wedding hadn’t happened yet was because of delayed cab service that stopped the guests, few in number, from arriving on time.

That was scary for a few reasons, it seemed. But the top reason wasn’t anything Wuya expected. Most passing monks seemed a little too worried about Kimiko’s possible reaction.

It’d been the first time Wuya had heard anyone in this temple seem fearful of a female Dragon in a way that came of as both admirable and respectful. _Then again_ , Wuya thought. _I didn’t stick around to see how they treated the first one_.

“It’s our luck that the Fire Dragon hasn’t heard of this yet”, one apprentice told his friend as they passed Wuya without so much of a shiver. Faintly, the witch contemplated hissing menacingly at the pair but thought better of it.

Maybe it was for the best, this delay. _At least if someone got cold feet, they’ll have a plenty of time to run_. Smirking at her own malice, Wuya ignored how her own joke didn’t make her feel too good.

She’d joked about this nonsense, marriage and stuff, before and it never got to her. But for some reason, she didn’t want to think of the little Xiaolin runt getting married getting heart-broken instead.

_You’re going soft_ , Wuya told herself. _It’s no wonder he told the other brats to try to sway you to their side_. But she didn’t dwell on that too much.

One of the people helping out with everything whooshed past her with a small plate of appetizers, which looked delicious even if she wasn’t that hungry.

Before she could make an attempt to follow the caterer, Wuya spotted two people looming near in her vision _. Shit, it’s them_. She leaned back into the pillar, nearly hiding her from their vision, and tried to stay inconspicuous.

“—you not wake me up for this? This is _so_ much more important than sleep”, Kimiko was saying, speed-walking. Her words grew louder by the time she was within Wuya’s proper earshot. “How is everyone going to get here on time now?”

Though he’d reached her in no time, nothing about Raimundo’s voice indicated he’d been hurrying after her. “They won’t. They’ll just be late.”

A pause. “And they’ll have a story to tell at parties, you know. So, it’s all good.”

“Oh, so you caught the positivity virus today? A _story_? What’s a story going to do when they’re here and they’re all pissed off at _me_ for their cabs being late?”

Now, she paused. “Wipe that stupid smile off your face and be negative with me for, like, five seconds.”

“You really think they’re going to be pissed at you because the cabs were late?”, Wuya could hear Raimundo asking, a few laughs escaping him. “How the fuck is that _your_ problem? Shit happens.”

Kimiko scoffed. “Sometimes you sound so rational—”

“Thank you. One of us has to be.”

“—And it just makes you get this asshole expression on, so please don’t get a big head about being _marginally_ right.”

A pause. She clicked her tongue. “Whatever story our guests have won’t beat any story out of Joaquim’s wedding, though.”

“Joaquim’s wedding was a chaos masterclass”, Raimundo said, fondly. “Every time I want to laugh, I re-watch the wedding video.”

“We _should_ re-watch it when we get back”, Kimiko mused. “I’d love to watch a disaster I had no part in unfold.”

“Yeah, you know it seems like a lot of people are doing little disasters these days”, he said, a little too casually. “So how about we have one of our own?”

“….If that’s your way of proposing to me, then you need to consider _several_ things”, she said. “ _Ew_ , Raimundo.”

There was a pause and a scoff, at which Wuya imagined Kimiko rolling her eyes. Then the Fire Dragon continued, “And why now? Why _not_ when the twins turn eighteen?”

“I appreciate the sarcasm”, Raimundo began. “But come on, _you_ could have proposed to _me_. At least _I_ didn’t say no twice.”

“It’s not my fault you chose the _worst_ timings”, Kimiko said, laughing. “Weirdo. Why would you even— _no_ , don’t tell me, you had _another_ talk with your mother.”

“Fuck off”, he said, waving it off and laughing too. “You know she only says anything when her sisters talk to her.”

A pause. “You know, this is a pretty cool hidden spot so how about we stop talking about my mother and do…something else.”

“ _Smooth_! I’m, like, falling in love with you all over again.”

“Wow, shut up!”

Hearing a couple of faint stumbling footsteps and a thud against the other side of the hidden pillar, Wuya could only guess what was happening as she prayed they didn’t turn around.

The witch now heard a few sounds that sounded like kissing and rolled her eyes almost instinctively. She would have said something witty and a bit mean if she wasn’t trying to be hidden. _Let them have their hopefully short moment, I guess_.

Apparently Wuya’s wish worked. “ _Shit_ , okay, where’s Lolo?”, Kimiko asked, as if suddenly remembering.

A pause. “She’s been too quiet—you know this means _something_ is happening.”

Raimundo cursed too. “Yeah, she’s probably terrorizing one of the monks with her brother.”

A pause. “Wait, hold on, I think they might be both with Dojo, actually.”

“And where is Dojo?”, Kimiko asked.

Raimundo cleared his throat, “In the tearoom.”

“…Where Wuya is?”

“Well, yeah, but you’ve seen her. She won’t, like, attack a couple of five year-olds at a party straight out of a coma.”

While Wuya contemplated the Wind Dragon’s sure-fire words, Kimiko snorted. “Maybe not a couple of five year-olds, but _our_ five year-olds? Sure. We were her enemies, you know.”

_Still are_ , the witch though, raising a confused eyebrow. Before either Dragon on the opposite side of the pillar could say anything, a couple of childish giggle-screams were heard coming from somewhere near.

“ _Graças a Deus_ ”, Raimundo said, relieved.

Kimiko didn’t wait a second. “See? You _were_ worried—why would you leave them there with her?”

“I only left Ryo there”, he said. “And I left him with Dojo, too. I had to take a call—by the way, the day I quit will be the happiest day of my life.”

A pause. He sighed, as if dejected. “I won’t be able to do that soon, sadly. I…got a raise!”

“Do _not_ fuck with me right now—really, _really?_ ”, Kimiko said, torn between whispering in disbelief and excitedly screaming. Wuya heard another kiss. “Congratulations!”

She laughed. “Okay, maybe I _will_ marry you now.”

“Okay, gold-digger”, Raimundo said, laughing along. “We’ll have to get a prenup!”

“Oh _yes_ , those extra seven _reais_ will tear us apart.”

“Yea—wait, say that again? _Reais_ ”, he said. When she did, Wuya could swear Raimundo reacted more happily to that than to the raise. “Your pronunciation has gotten better, finally!”

“Well, look at _you_ , Mr. I Can Barely Read A Sushi Menu Without Assistance”, Kimiko quipped. “You have the time to learn now, so really, what’s your excuse?”

“Nothing”, Raimundo said, nonchalantly. “I’ll sign up for a class when we get back. Maybe _then_ I’ll understand what Ryo is saying.”

Pausing, he laughed. “Your kid walked into that tearoom speaking in the quickest Japanese I’ve ever heard—I was even trying to find context clues and shit until he realized I wasn’t getting him.”

“You know, Iolanda literally does the same thing with Portuguese!”, Kimiko said, surprised and sounding like she’s onto something. “Except she doesn’t explain it. She just goes all Bambi eyes and tell me to ‘ask Papai’.”

She paused. “Do you think they do this on _purpose_?”

“Uh? _Duh_ —”

When Raimundo didn’t continue his reply, Wuya raised an eyebrow. Her confusion lasted all of two seconds until a third voice joined the party. Clay.

“Y’all having a good time? Can I interrupt?”

“You already did”, Kimiko said, bemusedly.

“It was a rhetorical question, Kim. So, what are we talkin’ about?”

“Ryo and Lolo pulling linguistic pranks on us”, Raimundo said, a shrug present in his voice. “Why, you got something better to talk about?”

Clay snorted. “Oh, tons! Remember Yi, the apprentice about to become a monk? I think there’s identity theft going on with him.”

A pause. “Also, y’all _do_ know the biggest villain threat of our young lives is here? Gossip material right under our here noses!”

Wuya smiled at that. Maybe she’d come to like this Earth Dragon after all. Her smile was cut short by a snort, though.

“Biggest villain?”, Kimiko said. “I mean, no disrespect to Wuya but _hello_? Chase fucking Young, evil overlord, _literally_ right there.”

_Well_ , Wuya thought sarcastically, _fuck you too, little girl_. Now, the witch heard her former apprentice sigh.

“You’re not giving her credit, like she almost killed us several times—”

“So did everyone else, big deal!”

“And she recruited me once.”

“No offense, Rai”, Clay said, chuckling. “But you were like twelve. You could’a sold yer soul for a bottle of pop and an X-box!”

“Well, fuck you too”, Raimundo said, cheerily. “And I think we all know who _that_ villain was. Like, he might have been a fucking legume but _good_ _God_! Remember?”

At that, the other two grownup warriors snorted and laughed and agreed. They talked about other things shortly after, like Clay’s boyfriend being a wet blanket for not showing up and how they needed to hit the beach tomorrow.

Even though the conversation was in no way remotely interesting after the first minute, Wuya couldn’t help but listen in. It made her feel dejected, like she’d missed out on something important.

She couldn’t put her finger on it at first, but she’d felt a twinge of pain when Kimiko and Raimundo first came here. Listening to them talk about their lives and family made it even worse.

And then Clay came and the conversation carried on, still infused with that same old thing that made her uncomfortable at first. Only that discomfort turned into sadness rather quickly.

Wuya was almost sure that if Omi had made it to that gathering, she would have screamed.

They were family, Wuya realized. After all the tests and the betrayals and the years, they’d managed to still win and become family. Knowing this only made her wonder in ‘what if’s and ‘what would have happened’s.

What if they’d all stuck together. What would have happened if someone, just one person, believed in her.

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

Wuya had one spring of peace and quiet in the temple before everything truly crumbled around her.

Sure, she lost the minimal respect the masters had given her and was all but shunned by monks and her old friends. And sure, Master Chen died and left them all at Master Young’s mercy. But at least she had a roof over her head and plenty of time to think about what to do next.

She was at a crossroads and had no idea what to do. On one hand, there was the Xiaolin Temple, her home and haven that actively shunned magic. And on the other, there was the Heylin Temple, a place of equality where she’d felt accepted, magic and all.

Both temples, though, thought her Wind element theory was rubbish.

Ironically, Wuya was a few months from turning twenty, the age where she’d be required to declare what temple she wanted to be a part of.

If she chose Xiaolin, she’d have to go out of her way to make them accept her again _. I’d give up magic_ , Wuya thought unhappily. _And I still won’t be fully accepted_. But if she chose Heylin, all she’d have to do was forget about her theory. And leave. And leaving meant she’d never go the Xiaolin Temple again.

_It’s my home_ , Wuya remember once telling Dashi, when they’d first met. It was her home and she had a responsibility to it, didn’t she?

She shook her head and tried to stop thinking for a while. She had another thing, something more important to think about now. That letter that came for her a few days.

“What does it say?”, Dashi said, curious yet not taking his eyes off the scrolls he was studying.

Over time, as the missions spaced out and they stopped making Wu, Wuya began enjoying his company again and Dashi gradually returned to normal, though he still had some cold spells every now and then.

Despite the cold spells and his overall demeanor sometimes, she still appreciated his presence. He was the only one who gave her any attention now.

Even though he had no time, with all his regular training and studies, he still made time to see her and sometimes studied in her room. And when he was there, everything had a certain warmth to it.

Wuya blinked and shrugged. “It’s nothing. Just a, a letter from a man named Ba Xun.”

“Ba Xun? Who’s that?”

“My father”, she said, clearing her throat. Suddenly, it was almost impossible to ignore the cloth doll deep in her drawer. “He, uh, he wants me to visit. He wants to see me.”

Dashi rolled up his scroll and raised an eyebrow. “That’s…weird. Did you write to him recently?”

“No”, Wuya said, sighing. The last time she saw her father, she was nine. His face wasn’t all too clear in her mind, but she did remember his tearful voice when he said goodbye. “I haven’t heard from him at all since I came here.”

Biting the inside of his cheek, the Water Dragon seemed to be contemplating something. “So, will you go?”

“No”, she said, like it was fairly obvious. When she saw his disappointed expression, she raised an eyebrow. “What? You think I should go?”

“Yes”, Dashi said, firmly. “I know you haven’t seen him in years but it’d be worth it, seeing him again.”

A pause. He sighed, dejectedly. “I’m not just saying that to be awful, Wuya. I only had my mother and believe me, if I knew who my father was, I’d be looking for him.”

“I know”, Wuya said, nodding. He wouldn’t really, with the rules and all. Then again, she doubted Dashi would follow that particular rule. “I might consider it.”

And consider it, she did. Eventually, Wuya decided visiting her hometown and seeing her family wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. She wanted to be away from the monks ignoring her and Chase’s cold glares and the maids scurrying whenever they saw her.

So, she left one day after telling only Master Chen and leaving Dashi a note in her room.

Wuya’s village wasn’t as far north as she remembered. It was not right next to where the sun rose either. It just felt that way. The houses were all small and it wasn’t too windy, except where Wuya went.

She didn’t know where her old house was at first, so she walked the length of the village. Despite her walking with her bags, Wuya didn’t feel tired. Only curious. The place seemed all too familiar and foreign all at once.

Crossing some roads, Wuya remembered some things, like the woods where she and her siblings used to play. She faintly remembered the marketplace in the town, even though she didn’t go there a lot.

Eventually, her feet found their way back to her old home. The old house was medium-sized and unassuming. Wuya took a deep breath before going to the door. She knocked and waited and eventually an old man walked out.

He only took one look at her red hair. “Wuya?”

“Father”, she said, a little awkwardly. “I got your letter. How have you been?”

To her shock, Wuya felt the man’s arms around her and slowly realized he was hugging her. She heard him crying, quiet happy tears, and cleared her throat. She hugged him back, but barely.

Inside the old house, Wuya set her bags in the guest room and rested for a couple of hours before venturing out to the common room again. There, she found her father waiting with a steaming pot of tea and two cups.

_Only two cups_ , Wuya observed. No other cups waiting, just in case someone came back into the house.

Xun, her father, noticed her analytical gaze. His face seemed to get greyer. “No one is here except me.”

“Oh, really?”, Wuya asked, unable to hide all her disappointment. “Are they on a trip?”

“No”, Xun said, sighing. He closed his eyes for a moment and straightened his back. It was going to be a long story, she could tell.

And it was. After Wuya left, the family suffered a harsh winter and a harsher time trying to adjust to everything afterwards. Wuya’s grandfather, Xun’s father, died shortly and the family struggled to put food on the table for a while.

It took a lot of time for everything to fall into place again. Soon enough, Jinghua and Jingfei, Wuya’s older sisters, both married and left for far away villages, never to return. According to their letters, both sisters had about three children each by now. Wuya was an aunt.

Wuya’s oldest sibling, her brother Huan, left after his sisters’ wedding ceremonies, to be a guard for some rich man’s household far, far away. As for the youngest of the siblings, Jing, well…

“Jing is no longer with us”, Xun said, sorrowfully. “He died two years after you left.”

Wuya nodded. Though she was apologetic, she did not remember Jing. He was two when she was nine.

“And my mother? Where is she?”

“Your mother, Ju”, Xun said, sighing. “She died too.”

Wuya felt the nothingness in her stomach grow. “When?”

“Three years ago”, her father said. “I’m so sorry you didn’t get to meet her again. She would have appreciated how well you have turned out.”

After this downturn in conversation, Wuya and her father talked about other things. They talked about the village and how it changed. How the family that lived closest to them were still as noisy as ever and how Wuya’s sisters were.

They talked about her brother and how he never wrote, though he had sent a letter when he knew his youngest sister was visiting.

“He says he misses you”, Xun said, pouring her a second cup of tea.

They also spoke about the temple. It was actually the focus of most conversations. Xun asked her about how Master Wu, his friend, was and how she led her life now. Did she go to lessons? Did she learn to fight?

It went like this for the next two days Wuya stayed in the old house. On the third day, though, she was finally fed up with their beating around the bush. She did, after all, come for one reason. The letter.

“In your letter”, Wuya began, one day after lunch. “You said had important news for me. You weren’t just saying that because you wanted me to visit, were you?”

“No, no”, Xun said, shaking his head. He took a minute to pause and looked his estranged daughter in the eye. “Someone came to visit me a few days before I wrote you that letter. Someone who had an important message for me.”

“Who was it?”, Wuya asked. She was not curious, even though her father seemed intent on making her that way.

“A groom”, her father said. “He came and asked me for my daughter’s hand in marriage. I told him my daughters were married already, but he told me he knew one who wasn’t. You, Wuya.”

Wuya said nothing. Not because she agreed, but because she had no idea what to say. This was the first time she saw her father since she was nine. Eleven years had passed and this is what he had to say to her.

“He asked for your hand”, Xun repeated. “And I intend to offer it.”

And now, she couldn’t stay silent. “You won’t be doing that.”

“Wuya—”

“You won’t, Father”, Wuya repeated. She looked him straight in the eye, careful to mask her shock. “I only came here because I wanted to see you. See you and remember who you are, who my family was.”

A pause. She sighed, shaking her head. “I never stopped thinking about the night you left me at the temple. It never leaves my head—I always thought you would come back to take me home but you…never did.”

“I’m sorry, I truly am sorry for that, Wuya”, Xun said, unable to meet her eyes now. “We, we couldn’t…”

“I know”, Wuya said, nodding. “And I understand. You had to make a sacrifice so we could both survive and that sacrifice meant leaving me without family and you living without me. Even though we have different lives, I understand your sacrifice.”

She paused. “I appreciate it too. But you can’t—you don’t get to claim me now. I’m an adult, a different person that the little girl you left at the Xiaolin Temple.”

A pause. “I’ll leave tomorrow, early in the morning. You don’t have to say goodbye to me. And I think you know my answer to your proposal.”

Sighing, Xun watched as Wuya dusted her knees and got up. She made her way to the door but before she could leave the room, her father cleared his throat and called for her.

“Yes, Father?”

“Don’t you want to know who he is, at least?”

Wuya looked at her father and tried not to wrinkle her nose at his pleading expression. “No.”

By the time the sun rose over the town, Wuya had already left her father’s house and was rummaging around the marketplace for something to eat. She had made her plan.

She had enough money for one night’s stay and for means to travel back to the temple, so she would eat then find a boarding house to stay in. As she had her meal, Wuya overheard an interesting conversation between two market ladies.

“Did you hear?”, one was telling the other. “They said he’s camped out in the cave in the mountains near us.”

The other lady gasped. She lowered her voice so no one would hear her. “Is that—you mean, Hannibal?”

“ _Shush_ , not so loud! Someone might hear you. But yes, it’s _him_.”

“Well”, the other woman said, worriedly. “Are we going to meet him? Maybe he’ll find us a solution, a treatment for Kai’s illness.”

“I was thinking about that too”, the first woman said. “He’s the only one who can help us now.”

There was a small minute of silence, only disrupted by the market’s sounds, before the second woman began again.

“But, well—”

“What is it?”

“I thought he was”, the woman said, whispering until her voice was barely audible. “A _demon_?”

The first woman shushed her friend again and told her, insistently, that that was only a rumor and that the only thing everyone knew for sure was that this Hannibal was the greatest Heylin warrior anyone ever knew.

“He’s blessed”, the woman said, firmly. “He can even walk on water, my cousin said!”

_He uses magic_ , Wuya thought, confirming her suspicions. A Heylin warrior who uses magic and is the greatest of his generation. She had to see him. Maybe meeting with him will give her a clue to choosing a temple.

After she finished her meal, Wuya found a boarding house and left her bag in the room where she would stay.

Then, she mustered her strength and went back out, leaving town and finding her way to the mountain. There, she trekked up the mountain’s path and finally, after one long climb, found the warrior’s cave.

Once inside the cave, Wuya walked, cautious and on the lookout. She found no one inside but soon enough she heard a voice, behind her.

Turning back around, the witch found herself staring a tall redheaded woman, herself, in the face. She blinked but her reflection stayed there. Now, her reflection smiled.

“I was wondering when you would show up, Miss Wuya.”

Wuya tried to keep herself collected. “Who are you?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”, her reflection said, smiling. Suddenly, Wuya’s double changed. Instead of a redheaded woman, there now stood a tall man with a beard and armor. “I’m Hannibal.”

“You’re a demon”, Wuya immediately said, parroting the marketplace woman’s words before she could help herself.

Hannibal laughed. “I’m a shapeshifter, Miss Wuya. But, hey, close enough!”

A pause. “Follow me inside. I’ll treat you to something to eat—it’s a long road up these mountains.”

Once seated with a cup of tea in hand, Wuya kept her guard up. Hannibal, meanwhile, went about his business, acting like she wasn’t there. She coughed now.

“How do you know my name?”

Hannibal laughed. For some reason, that sound was grating to Wuya’s ears. “I take it you’re not too strong on premonitions. Shame—most witches get by off of that alone.”

“I haven’t been able to read any oracle bones”, Wuya defended, embarrassedly. “I’m still trying, though.”

“You’ll get there eventually”, the Heylin warrior said. “It’s not a promise, but you have the potential.”

He paused. “So, are you going to tell me what brings you here?”

“Didn’t your visions tell you that already?”, Wuya asked, crossing her arms.

“It doesn’t work like that”, Hannibal said, smiling. “But I can see how you’d think that.”

Wuya sighed. “I’m here because I don’t know what to do. I have to choose a temple, but either way I go, I find myself losing.”

“That is one predicament no one enjoys”, the warrior said. “But you already know your path, Miss Wuya.”

A pause. “I can’t help you with that—I suspect you knew this before you came here.”

“But people come for your help here”, Wuya protested, a little childishly. “All I want is an answer.”

“And you can get an answer”, Hannibal agreed. “Just not to that question. Ask again.”

Sitting in front of the Heylin warrior, Wuya sighed and tried to think again. What could she possibly ask to get an answer she could use? Hannibal, in his own self-assured way, seemed to already know too much about her. He’d even known her name.

Maybe that was it. “How did you know my name?”

Hannibal nodded, approvingly. “I had a vision and it involved you.”

“A vision about me?”, Wuya asked, surprised. “What did you see?”

“I saw you without a cage.”

_A cage_ , Wuya thought, raising an eyebrow. “I’m not a prisoner.”

“You’re not?”, Hannibal said. “You’re from the Xiaolin Temple and you’re a witch. You’re shunned by your fellow monks and everyone around them. Is that not a prison, Miss Wuya?”

“Metaphorically, it is”, she allowed. “But I can leave any time.”

“You can’t.”

Hannibal spoke after a moment, smiling. “Even if you leave the temple, you’ll still be imprisoned.”

“By whom?”, Wuya asked.

“By the world”, he said. “The world and its rigidity won’t accept magic anymore. All of these rules won’t allow for it.”

_He has a point_ , she allowed. Out loud, she said, “But you just said in your vision, I was free.”

“You were”, Hannibal agreed. “And so was everyone else. In my vision, I saw a world without rules.”

“And when does that happen?”, Wuya asked. “This dynasty, the next?”

He shrugged. “I don’t have an exact timeframe. All I know is this will happen when the Treasure of the Blind Swordsman is found.”

“The Treasure of the Blind Swordsman?”, Wuya asked, scoffing. He had to be joking. “Everyone knows that’s just a children’s story.”

Hannibal shook his head. Now, his smile seemed disappointed. “Clearly you have a lot to learn, young lady. There’s truth in everything, even children’s make-believes.”

A pause. “You have no idea just what that treasure could do. It could move mountains and turn the world upside down, it could make kings regular people and make regular people kings—anything could happen!”

Another pause, followed by a sly smile. “You could even become the most powerful witch in the world!”

“Even if I become that”, Wuya said, narrowing her eyes. “It’ll be because of my own merit. I won’t take any shortcuts.”

“Suit yourself”, Hannibal said. He sighed and gave her a look. “If you want to be the greatest witch of all, though, you’ll need a blessing from a great warrior.”

Realizing where this was going, Wuya nodded and accepted the silent proposal. Hannibal reached his hand and made a three fingered claw shape.

Muttering something almost inaudible, Hannibal ran his three fingers under Wuya’s right eye. The lines they left felt hot, like they left actual marks. Wuya realized they probably did.

Strangely, the mark made her feel calm. Wuya still didn’t know what to do but where she had to be, at least for a few days.

When Wuya left a week later, Hannibal was smiling as he said his goodbyes. “Don’t forget all about little old me, Miss Wuya.”

He paused. “Even if your great destiny makes it difficult to remember.”

Wuya nodded and got up to leave. She was long out of earshot when Hannibal’s grin widened. Centuries of years on, he would eventually tell her what he’d really thought about her then. And what he really said, when she left the caves.

“These Dragons”, Hannibal had said, to an empty cave. “They’re always the easiest to fool.”

Wuya said nothing about Hannibal when she returned to the Xiaolin Temple. But that didn’t matter, either way.

No one asked her about that. No one asked her about anything. And the one who did ask was only interested in one thing.

“How was your visit to your family?”

Wuya sighed. She’d only been back for a day and it was already too suffocating just being in her room.

“It was nice”, she said. “No one’s left but my father. My mother is dead and all my siblings have left home.”

A pause. “He’s alive and well so I’m happy with that, at least.”

“It could have been better, I know”, Dashi said, trying to console her. “But at least it went well, didn’t it?”

“It did”, Wuya allowed. “My father’s loneliness got to him, though. He actually asked me to visit because someone asked him for my hand.”

The Water Dragon raised an eyebrow. Very faintly, Wuya saw something like worry in his face. _Predictable_ , she thought with a smile.

“Really? And what did you say?”

“I said no, of course”, the witch said. “I don’t know who that man is but it’s ridiculous trying to ask the father I haven’t seen in years for my hand, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I suppose it is”, Dashi said, in an oddly muted voice. He tried for a failed smile. “What else did you do in your village?”

“I spent some well-deserved days off”, Wuya said, nervously. On those days, she also did some thinking and that thinking led her to a certain conclusion that was all but foreseeable. After visiting Hannibal, that decision was clear as day.

She paused. “I used that time to decide, too.”

“Decide what?”, Dashi asked, confused.

“Decide my temple”, Wuya said, unable to look anywhere above her feet. “I’m almost twenty, you know. It’s time.”

Dashi couldn’t speak for a minute. “And what…what did you decide, Wuya?”

“I’m…I’ll be leaving for the Heylin Temple”, she said, softly. “I’ll leave in two days’ time.”

“Why?”

“ _Dash_ —”

“Why?”, the Dragon asked again, in a broken voice. He gave her a pleading look. “This is your _home_ —you can’t leave!”

“I can and I will”, Wuya said, torn between being angry and being sad. She knew where he was coming from, but he couldn’t tell her that. Not when she couldn’t tell him what to do then. “I can’t stay here—this temple is a prison!”

Seeing the dejected look on Dashi’s face, she added, “It _is_. I’m treated like I’m evil just because I use magic. I’m treated like I’m vermin and all I am is nothing but trapped and unfulfilled.”

A pause. “I can’t stay, Dashi. I can’t and you should understand.”

With this said, Wuya turned around and looked out her window. Closing her eyes, she waited until Dashi left so she could be alone in her room with her thoughts. She needed nothing more right now.

Instead of leaving, Dashi spoke. “I changed it for you. That ancient rule all Dragons followed—I had it changed for _you_.”

Wuya didn’t turn. Dashi sighed. “You’re not going to ask me, but…but it’s that rule you’re probably thinking about. The one about Dragons not being allowed attachments and relationships. I changed it. And after I changed, I...I had to ask. I, it was supposed to be a surprise."

_That’s why Xun was so adamant about the proposal_ , Wuya thought. _That’s why Dashi was so eager to hear about it_. It just _had_ to be Dashi, didn’t it?

She tried to ignore some of his hints and playfully allowed others. She’d even played along at times, when she didn’t mind the possibility. And that went on for way too long and now they were at this impasse. A mess. And a changed, old-as-time rule.

“Was that it?”, Wuya asked now, turning around. She'd always been curious about what Master Chen had told Dashi the night he chose his temple. _Figures_ , she would connect the dots before she finally left. “The ultimate privilege they gave you?”

Dashi said nothing to that, but he didn’t have to say anything at all. His face said everything. He looked at her, pleading and worried. She could only say one thing.

“Tell Chase and Guan”, she said. “You should have told them before you told me. They could use that.”

“Is that”, Dashi began. “Is that all you have to say?”

“Yes”, Wuya said, nodding.

She was leaving and it was final. She had no response for him, not one that he’d like anyway, but if she judged that if he did love her, he’d understand.


	8. Curses and Conversations

_Present day_

They were not leaving the other side of the pillar, Wuya realized. The more time passed, the more topics her grownup nemeses seemed to find to talk about.

It’d been intriguing at first, listening to them reference events in their lives and the world in general, both of which could eventually be useful to Wuya.

After some time, though, Wuya’s burgeoning envy and her general sense of being bored took over and she couldn’t stand to hear the monks talk anymore.

“Okay, okay”, Wuya heard Kimiko say, laughing a little. “Now, we really need to focus. I have to go call the cab company; Omi’s probably freaking out!”

Using the resulting overlapping answers as a cover, Wuya rolled her eyes and managed to sneak away, undetected. Soon enough, the other two will remember their responsibilities and one of them—Raimundo, probably—would try to find her.

Having had enough of the small talk, Wuya really couldn’t let that happen again. So, she came up with a plan. She would find a vacant room near the spot where the wedding would happen and she’d spend the rest of the wait there, coming out only when the ceremony started.

_And that’s how you avoid a headache_ , Wuya thought, scanning the rooms as she passed them by. She quickly found one near enough and slid the door open. She entered and slide it shut behind her, never once checking if someone was inside.

“Um, hi?”

Maybe she should have looked in before she entered. Looking the unfamiliar black woman in the eye, Wuya smiled back and nodded. She cleared her throat. “Are you an apprentice or something?”

“No”, the woman said, shaking her head and making her curls bounce. She threw someone sitting far away a look. “A guest of yours, Jay?”

Wuya’s eyes trailed over to where the unfamiliar woman was looking. Her eyes widened. She knew who the man sitting in the faraway chair by the propped mirror was.

He’d changed, predictably. Different hair and different build aside, she still recognized him. Jermaine, whose eyes were just as wide in shock as he looked at Wuya.

“I guess so”, Jermaine said, getting up and walking closer. He gave the woman an apologetic look. “Ah, they told me that might happen, I should have probably warned you.”

“Well”, the woman said. “Are you at least going to introduce us?”

Jermaine nodded, throwing Wuya an apologetic glance too. “Yes, yeah, sorry. Janine, that’s Wuya, an old archenemy and ancient witch. Wuya, this is my sister, Janine Lee, an architect.”

“Good meeting you, Auntie”, Janine said, extending her hand to shake the surprised yet cooperating witch’s hand. “Amazing hair, by the way.”

Despite her discomfort, Wuya smiled. “Thank you!”

Janine smiled back. At the sound of a ringing tune, both siblings looked at their phones but only the sister sighed. She gave Jermaine a look.

“Kimiko needs help”, Janine said, a little peeved but jokey. “I’m going to check it out. Don’t miss me too much.”

Jermaine scoffed. “I never do!”

That was the last thing anyone said in the room for quite some time. With Janine gone, a severe silence descended on the room and didn’t dissipate. Wuya noticed that that silence was different.

With the Dragons, it’d been a silence loaded with awkwardness with a side of ease and a been-there-done-that attitude. With Jermaine, it was full of tension. He was even avoiding looking at her, which the witch supposed made sense.

In his short stint as a Heylin apprentice, they’d never talked or been in the same room together. Wuya remembered only seeing Jermaine at Chase’s citadel once, getting a training lesson.

But she’d never really asked about it. She never mentioned how Jermaine sometimes smelled like dormant chi, wood most likely, or how he was a little too smitten by the Water Dragon.

It was better that she let Chase do his thing without questions, so he’d let her do her thing without snooping either.

“It’s impressive”, Wuya said, pushing herself to push the words out. “That you and Omi are still together—getting married even, that’s a long committed relationship!”

Jermaine was confused before he laughed. “Oh, you think we’ve been together since we were twelve? No, no, what k—that would have been a straight up _mess_!”

A pause. “We did date but we actually got back together _years_ later. A few years ago actually.”

“I see”, Wuya said, nodding. That made sense. They both had time to grow. “Good for you.”

She paused to see Jermaine’s dropped expression. _Crap_. “No, I mean it. I may not sound sincere but I do mean it. Congratulations.”

“Thank you”, Jermaine said, smiling now. He seemed to hesitate before coughing. “For what it’s worth, I’m really glad you showed up.”

_Nice try_. “No, you’re not. I’m the enemy.”

“You are”, the groom said, nodding. “But I’m okay with you being here. Omi actually told me his reasons and I…I really saw his point, you know.”

Although he didn’t elaborate, Wuya found herself smiling at him. She immediately tried to smooth down her smile, though. _I’m going soft_ , she couldn’t help but think. Jermaine then gave her a look.

“I know it may not feel like it because the cabs are late and no one’s here yet”, Jermaine said. “But it’s going to be a full house out there in, like, three seconds. A lot of my family members are coming, some of our friends, Omi’s family too—”

“Omi’s family?”, Wuya asked, raising an eyebrow. That seemed like some important information someone should have mentioned.

Jermaine gave her a look, realization dawning on his face. “ _Right_. So, Omi found his family a while ago and a lot of them are coming. And everyone’s going to be asking who you are, so you’re going to have to bluff your way around it.”

A pause. He tried for a polite smile. “ _Please_ , don’t mention that you’re a fifteen hundred year-old magical being.”

“Well, since you asked nicely”, Wuya said, rolling her eyes. “I do know my way around a good disguise.”

“Yeah, I know.”

At her raised eyebrow, Jermaine added, “Omi told me. But even if he didn’t, I’d have expected that of you.”

“Really? We’ve barely met, Jermaine.”

“Yes, but out of all the villains I heard about, you sounded the most competent.”

Wuya smiled a little, as Jermaine continued. “Sure, Chase was there but he doesn’t have that drive you do, you know. Neither does Hannibal, if I’m being honest.”

“Thank you”, Wuya said, genuinely. “This might be stupid, but it does really mean a lot.”

She paused, smiling. “You know, you’re a lucky man. Omi’s loyal to a fault and he always sees the good in others even when it’s not there. He’ll never disappoint you.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works”, Jermaine said, shrugging. “He has his faults but I love him…even when he’s being extra. That’s the point, I think.”

Struggling to hold back a witty one-liner, Wuya settled for a nod and zipped lips. She would try to not rain on anyone’s parade for the day. Not yet anyway.

But not raining on anyone’s parade meant not speaking and so the conversation died. At least, until Jermaine tried to spark it again.

“Hey, can I ask you something weird?”

“Sure, kid. Consider it a wedding present.”

“Great, I don’t want a fourth blender”, Jermaine began. His smile turned into a curious expression. “Uh, why did you become evil? I always wondered.”

To that, Wuya did what she could and shrugged. “I felt like it.”

“That’s it? You felt like it?”

“Well”, Wuya said, allowing herself some leeway. She wasn’t staying for too long. “That and the fact that times were different when I was young. People were different and people like me were seen in a way that they aren’t seen like now.”

Another pause. “And it pays far more than being good does!”

Though she smiled and Jermaine sighed and spoke about something else, Wuya couldn’t believe she told half the truth to a complete stranger.

It was especially weird, considering she herself didn’t know when she stopped being good in the first place.

* * *

_Almost 1600 years ago_

A couple of years later, Wuya returned to the Xiaolin Temple. This time, as a prisoner.

She had no idea how this happened and if anyone asked her, she wouldn’t have found the words to explain. Somehow, some way, everything Wuya did was considered a crime.

When she’d first went to the Heylin Temple and tried for minimal practice with the winds, Wuya was only frowned upon. She didn’t care. At least, she was being allowed her space and wasn’t all but technically stifled.

However, that soon ended. Right around the time when she would expand her practice and somehow managed to use her magic to reach into the depths of the earths to mold sentient shapes and snap sputtering green fire into existence.

No one appreciated it. Least of all Master Yi.

“You’re treading dangerous territory, Wuya”, the old teacher would tell her when he caught wind of what she was doing. “I’ll admit I’m indulging your practicing with the wind but fire and earth—these are _real_ elements, Dragon elements. If you use them, you’ll regret it.”

Wuya had only scoffed back then. “Why? Do Chase and Guan have their elements patented?”

Master Yi didn’t appreciate her joke. Wuya realized he didn’t appreciate a lot of things about her, if she were being honest.

Sure, the old man was happy to see her and more than happy to integrate her into the temple but the more time went on, the more he seemed agitated.

Much like old Master Chen and Master Young after him in the Xiaolin Temple, Master Yi had many monks and masters whispering into his ear. Mostly, they whispered a lot about how Wuya couldn’t stay in their temple.

“She’s a _woman_ ”, Wuya had heard one monk whisper to another. “What are we supposed to do with her? What’s her purpose?!”

And the other didn’t miss a beat. “She’s not a woman; she’s a witch! Master Yi himself has taught her and—”

Though she supposed there was a certain pleasantness to being revered for her magic for once, Wuya had never been so affected by a stranger’s words. They were scared of her. _It’s like I’m not human anymore_ , she thought.

Some days Wuya did not actually feel human. Those would be the days where she would meet Hannibal on the mountain near her new temple. For some reason, Hannibal wasn’t too fond of meeting inside the Heylin Temple.

“Let’s just say me and your Master Yi don’t get along all that much”, Hannibal, her new mentor would say. “He is a little too happy with limits for my taste. Now, Miss Wuya, lesson one…”

And Wuya, as always, would try to pry the secret from Hannibal’s mouth. “Why, though? What happened? I think this is something I should know, considering you both taught me.”

She’d never get an answer, though. Hannibal had always been a secretive man and Wuya was as wary of him as she was impressed. The Heylin warrior’s magic had no limit, as far as she could see, and he never came to her looking like he did the week before.

One day, he’d be tall and broad and bald. The next, he’d have his hair to his knees and he’d look so frail he’d shake like an elder. And his face never remained the same either—the only thing that stayed the same about Hannibal’s face was grin, wide and mischievous. It made Wuya shiver.

As odd as he was, Hannibal had a lot of lessons to teach Wuya. Ones that Master Yi wouldn’t consider with a second glance.

“It’s impressive how much you know, honestly”, the Heylin warrior would say. “Especially considering how little yer old teacher taught you, Wuya.”

“It’s—Master Yi taught me the basics only”, the witch said, defensively. “He said any other spell I need would come to me naturally. And this is what happens!”

“Well, hey, don’t get all testy with me, little lady! I’m just saying. Yi means well, but would he teach you how to do this?”

Usually, when Hannibal said something like that, he’d silently perform a spell that made Wuya’s eyes widen with shock.

This time, the warrior said it and then beckoned his raven to fly forward with his hand. For a split second, the bird transformed into a woman, dressed in armor, before she became a bird again.

“How did you do that?”, Wuya asked, incredulous. “I’ve never been able to do that. I tried a lot but it just doesn’t stick with any of the objects I transform.”

“That’s because you need to practice on yourself first, my student”, Hannibal said, a tad arrogantly. “You _do_ know that’s how all witches becomes any good.”

Wuya followed his words to a tee. In between all the studying and practicing and following with her chores at the temple, she had no time for anything else really.

She’d been so lost in perfecting her craft, she hadn’t noticed that a couple of years passed her by.

She only knew when Hannibal told her, this time climbing up the mountain dressed in the skin of a young man younger than Wuya was. Strangely, he’d been somber while saying this.

“Your father died. Stabbed by a highwayman.”

“A highwayman”, Wuya repeated, a minute later. She heard Hannibal but she just couldn’t believe him. “But my father wouldn’t travel—he has no one to visit; he wouldn’t—”

“He was on his way to visit you, actually”, Hannibal said. “I saw it in a vision—that he’d be here to see you. He wanted to apologize for what happened last time you were home.”

A pause. “But now I guess he never will.”

Wuya’s legs couldn’t carry her anymore. “I, he was— _no_.”

She didn’t cry. She couldn’t cry for someone she barely knew. But she felt angry, so angry she didn’t know what to do. And then she remembered Hannibal again.

“Why didn’t you do anything? If you saw a vision, why didn’t you help him?”

“I didn’t see my vision to the end, Miss Wuya. And even if I did, I won’t be able to do anything—fate must go as fate must go. Can’t do a thing about it.”

Wuya scowled. “Yes, you can. I’m going to get my father his due.”

These weren’t just words Wuya threw in anger. She meant them and she acted on them. It took her a long, long time but she’d eventually found the man who killed her father.

He’d been a shivering, bumbling mess when he saw her. But that didn’t make her go easy on him.

“I don’t want to die”, the outlaw said, quivering near his sleeping mat. “Please, I beg you, I don’t want to die, I—”

“You don’t deserve to live”, Wuya hissed. And so, the outlaw didn’t.

But the witch didn’t limit her justice to just that man. She started with him and others like him, murderers for no good reason, and then she moved up. To thieves, to moneylenders, to people who were simply horrific.

Somewhere along the line, though, Wuya’s vision changed. She mistakenly took lives from people she thought had done something when they’d done nothing. The first time this happened, Wuya couldn’t sleep for weeks.

The second time and the third and the fourth and the countless times after, though, Wuya couldn’t give a damn. She had no regrets. She now just had a vision. A world wherein everything was perfect and managed by her.

Yes, _her_. Who else had what it took to know right from wrong? And really, how different was she from every other man with an army and heaps of free time. Everyone else was a savage.

Wuya didn’t start on her vision for the new world right away. She needed time at first and a place to recuperate before she could start anything. She needed to rest at home…and when she returned, Wuya discovered she didn’t have one.

“You’re not welcome here”, Master Yi said, not looking her in the eye. “The Heylin Temple will not house a murderer.”

Before she could even say anything, Wuya was led out of the temple and saw the new gates shut right before her eyes. No matter how many times she called and pleaded, no one opened the gates or heard her out.

No one would let her stay in the nearby village either. Everywhere Wuya went, she only heard a few words. Murderer. Witch. Cursed. Over and over like that was a spell of its own.

Faintly, Wuya thought of writing to her old home but quickly shook those thoughts off. No, they certainly won’t hear her out now. And in a way, she was happy with that.

Being out of the bounds of either temple set her free. She was cageless, like Hannibal said she would be.

Being cageless meant Wuya now played by her own rules. She made them and tore them down easily, like they were playing blocks. And then, she made everyone else play by them.

It didn’t matter who a person was or what they did, good or bad. They had to be under her control. If they were under her control, everything would go well. The world would be okay then, and the world needed to be okay now more than ever.

It’d been strange how horrible everything got way too soon. All of a sudden, Wuya’s helpers, who doubled as Heylin monks, would mention how no one spoke about the Xiaolin anymore. And if they did, it wasn’t in a good lens at all.

“They’re preparing for war, Master”, one monk would say, bowing his head so he wouldn’t even look Wuya’s mask in the eye. “They think it can happen at any minute.”

To that, Wuya would only nod and send the informant on their way. _Good, let them fight_.

Both temples had been already on their way to heavily clashing, so it was about time. Hannibal had told Wuya once that that was how the world got ready for change. _And we, understanding Heylins, will then get the upper hand_.

As the Xiaolin-Heylin tension grew, Wuya suspected that she, ironically, was the reason it was all coming to a head. After she roamed free, magic soon started to spread and a few magic users, not nearly as powerful, emerged out of the woodwork.

In a way, magic was returning and the Xiaolin largely blamed that on the Heylin Temple and Wuya. One monk told her about a very threatening letter that Master Yi got from Master Young the other day. _You should prepare to reap what you sowed_. It’d left no room for mystery.

Hearing all of this, Wuya could only do one thing. Spread word about the new world that everyone could get to be a part of once this petty squabbling between temples ended.

On her way to spreading this message, Wuya encountered more than a few people who didn’t deserve her mercy. So, she’d dealt with them her own way.

One of those days, right after she dealt with one of those men, Wuya was captured by Xiaolin monks, who’d been trailing her and waited for just the right moment to capture her in the Sphere of Yun.

They took her back to the temple and kept her in a dungeon-like room deep under the temple. Wuya stayed in that room until she forgot how time worked.

But it wasn’t like the Xiaolin Dragons would let her go on without gracing her with their presence. Soon enough, they showed up and once again, Wuya remembered that it’d been years since she’d seen them last.

“You look ridiculous”, Wuya began, grinning from ear to ear. It didn’t take a genius to know she’d been talking to Dashi, with an uncharacteristic moustache. “Did you miss me?”

Dashi’s face was still and bored. “We’re not hear for friendly conversation, Wuya.”

“Are you not? I was sure you were all dying to see me ag—”

“Shut up, witch”, Guan said, intervening. He was scowling like he didn’t recognize her.

After a small pause, Chase took over the conversation. He didn’t look Wuya in the eyes but his voice was still and monotonous like he’d done this a thousand times.

“Tell us why you’re doing this. What do you have to gain and who’s telling you to go around murdering people?”

Wuya smirked, knowing fully well how to unnerve him. “A little chatty, are we? I don’t think you’d be patient with that, Chase, it’s kind of a long story.”

“It’s Master Chase”, the warrior said, glaring at her. “Or Fire Dragon. Don’t address me like we’re friends.”

“But aren’t we, Chase? Didn’t we stay up all night, telling each other secrets. Didn’t we talk about—”

Chase’s eyes widened. “Shut up now.”

Blanching, Wuya took a step back in the sphere and tried to mask her shock with a big smile. This reaction wasn’t unlike Chase’s usual reactions. This time, though, he’d yelled at her with a voice that was undoubtedly hateful.

_He hates me_ , Wuya thought, still in disbelief. _Chase actually hates me_. Before she could say anything, Guan stepped in and menacingly told her to stop playing games and answer the Fire Dragon’s questions.

Moving her eyes from Chase to Guan, Wuya saw exactly what they felt towards her in their eyes. They didn’t bother to hide it. They found her distrustful and repulsive and they hated her.

Though she desperately wanted to, Wuya couldn’t bring herself to look into Dashi’s eyes to find out what he thought about her.

“You’re a fool”, Wuya said, instead. “You’re all fools. Every one of you.”

A pause. She now looked to Guan, “You’re a fool because you can’t think past your own pitiful mind’s imaginations. You were trying to stop a legacy when it had already started.”

Then to Dashi, “And you. You’re a stupider fool who chose to favor stupid idealism over the freedom everyone deserves.”

And finally to Chase, Wuya said, “I pity you the most, Ch— _Fire_ _Dragon_. You’ll turn on everything you believe in and you don’t even know it yet.”

“Shut up, witch”, Chase yelled, falling for the bait. His eyes shifted back and forth, trying to see if the other two saw any truth in Wuya’s words. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

_You chose this_ , Wuya thought. She smiled and it was anything but good. “Don’t I? You’ve never lived a life for yourself. The only things you seek in this life is power and your father’s approval.”

A pause. “If you stop competing and comparing yourself to Dashi for one second, you will wither and die because that has become your true purpose.”

Another pause. She now chuckled. “But I suppose that’s the only thing you have to live for, now that your father has died. Tell me, have you finally found out who killed him yet? Did you bring them to justice?”

When Chase didn’t respond and only looked at her like he’d seen a monster peeling off its skin, Wuya ignored how her own heart shriveled and added, “I must say, Master Young dying was the best moment of my life.”

At that, Chase’s gaze hardened. He took one long breath, like he didn’t’ know what to do or what he wanted to ask. Feeling Guan’s reassuring hand on his shoulder, Chase shrugged it off.

“You…did you kill my father, Wuya?”

_No_. “Yes.”

Wuya would have been lying if she said she didn’t know why she’d said that. She did see Master Young die, at the hand of a criminal on the road. She dealt with the killer soon after but didn’t give the dying man the pleasure of dying in her arms.

“She has to die”, Chase said, turning to Dashi with anger in his eyes and voice. “Let her hang or let her head fall off—I don’t care. She has to die.”

Dashi sighed. “Chase—”

“She killed my father, Dashi. I can’t let her live.”

“That’s not up to us to decide.”

“It is, though”, Guan uncomfortably added from where he stood. He threw a glare in Wuya’s direction, like it was her fault they were having a discussion.

“Fine, then we’ll vote on it”, Dashi said, sighing exasperatedly. “You two will be in favor and I won’t be and neither will Xia. You need at least three votes, so we’d be at a stalemate, which means the less violent route is what will happen.”

A pause. “Happy now?”

As they debated their options, Wuya noticed that the Dragons didn’t change all that much. In appearance, they sure did but if she closed her eyes, they’d go back to the boys she once knew.

What rang loud and clear in her ears, though, was one change she couldn’t let slide. Xia. Xia, that little girl she’d seen then, was now one of them. A Dragon.

“Huh”, Wuya said, drawing their attention back to her. She smiled pleasantly. “Maybe this is why Master Young had to die. If he were here, heaven knows you wouldn’t have had your first female Dragon!”

That pushed Chase over the edge. He walked back over to the sphere until he was nose-to-nose with Wuya, on the other side of the glass.

“My father was the one who suggested Xia was a Dragon in the first place”, Chase said, through grit teeth. “You were right, Wuya. He just didn’t like you. My father has always had an eye for evil and he could spot beasts from miles away.”

A pause. Chase spit at her, though it quickly slid down the sphere. “I should have listened to her, instead of befriending his killer. That is my mistake.”

“It won’t be the only one”, Wuya said. Being mentored by Hannibal meant that she’d finally accessed her own visions and quickly learned how to bend them to her will. This would be the first time she’d ever try that power, though.

When Chase masked his curious quick look, Wuya began, “You will betray everything you stand for, Chase Young. I’m not just saying that.”

Being in the Sphere of Yun meant that Wuya’s full power was muted. However, it also meant that half of it leaked through the Wu and reached the people currently imprisoning her. And this largely made Chase see what she was seeing too.

The Fire Dragon’s eyes glassed over, as she spoke, clearly seeing all that Wuya was talking about. He saw himself as he betrayed his friends and saw himself as betrayed all the ideals his father had instilled in him too.

Viciously smiling, Wuya turned to her next prey. Guan, already looking at Chase like he wanted nothing more than to help him through this. That gave her an idea.

“And you, Guan”, the witch said, making said warrior turn to face her. “You will be heartbroken. Your heartbreak will be so great, you won’t know what to do with it or with yourself.”

Pausing, she saw Guan’s face crumble at the vision. “Your heart will shatter every day and every day you will wake up to pick it up. You will have to exist and suffer until the one who broke your heart ceases to exist—and they won’t.”

Another pause. “You will exist with each other and you will never be happy. And I will be always there to laugh.”

“Wuya”, Dashi now said, stepping in. “Stop this. This isn’t necessary. All we wanted is to ta—”

“Don’t think you won’t be getting your due, Master Monk”, Wuya said, snorting. “Or is it Grandmaster now? It doesn’t matter much. You will be defeated and dishonored before you know it.”

Pausing, Wuya made a mistake and took a look at Dashi’s face, still but desperately trying to hold itself up. His eyes were still pleading with her.

“You—you will hurt everyone you care about and you will die horribly”, Wuya stammered as she tried to ignore the stinging in her eyes. “You will only live to be haunted by me at every waking moment. No one will know you and you will be forever without a home.”

By the time she pushed out the last sentences of her curse out, Wuya’s voice had broken and her sobs punctuated the words. It’d only be sheer dumb luck if the curse worked now, but Wuya didn’t care. She just wanted them to leave her alone now. And it didn’t take long for them to do so.

It doesn’t take Wuya long to escape. She does that the very next night and the guarding is so lax, she almost imagines that the Dragons themselves wanted to let her go.

The more she runs and escapes the Xiaolin Dragon, as the three of them try and scramble after her, the more Wuya realizes it was just a fluke.

But they don’t manage to chase her for too long. On one day, Wuya gets summoned to the Heylin Temple for Master Yi’s funeral rites. It was one of his last wishes, Master Ping said in the scroll.

When Wuya got back to the temple, she felt welcome for the very first time and after the funeral, decided to simply stay there. Not one monk could complain or try to drive her off now and Master Ping didn’t seem to mind her presence or magic or elements, like Master Yi did.

So, she stayed. And that was how Wuya slowly started turning the Heylin philosophy into her own, though it was considerably easy. Soon after her arrival, the rift between Xiaolin and Heylin turned into a full-fledged war and the temples became more like strategic camps than anything else.

It was all coming together, Wuya thought. Nothing on her personal missions or ambushes fazed her after this. Not even Dashi’s peace visit, once it became too late.

“You have to stop this, Wuya”, Dashi said, clean-shaven now. “Please, this is just madness at this point. It’s becoming a war.”

Wuya made a point to take a sip of her tea before she spoke. “It’s not becoming anything; it is a war.”

“And that seems right to you?”

“Let’s not talk morals, Dashi. You’ll lose out.”

Wuya paused, smiling now. “I’m only on step one and I’m never stopping. I’ll win and if I don’t win now, I’ll have all the time in the world to do so.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”, Dashi asked, eyebrows furrowed. “How can you even—”

“Let’s just say I found a swordsman who made my wildest dreams come true”, she said, taking pleasure in the misery on his face.

That day she found the Treasure of the Blind Swordsman had also been the same day she’d lost Hannibal. She didn’t ask the swordsman for a world without rules; she asked him for immortality.

She’d meant what she said to Hannibal when she told him she’d meet her destiny on her own. All she needed was time and now she had it.

The realization seemed to only be hitting Dashi now, though. His face fell. “You didn’t.”

“But I did”, Wuya said, nodding. “Take this as a warning, Dashi. Make the most out of your life. Get married, have kids, become a raving lunatic—soon enough, you and I will meet in battle and only one of us will walk away.”

“I know”, Dashi said, clearly disappointed. He sighed now. “I think I’d rather keep performing my duties as a Dragon until then. I hate to know it has to end this way. Sometimes I think Dojo still misses you.”

With those last words, Dashi got off his futon and made his way to the open door. Before he could walk out of there and eventually out of the Heylin Temple, he turned and gave Wuya a small sad smile.

“I took a vow of celibacy, by the way. I’d be lying if I said I even considered being with someone else.”

And despite herself, despite the sadness of that moment, Wuya did what she does best when words like those came out of Dashi. She rolled her eyes.

Years later, Wuya and Dashi eventually did face each other in that great battle. They’d shared a small smile before it began. A bitter smile, full of memories and laughs and loss. Despite the battle only lasting for a few days, no one ever stopped speaking about it. Even those who only heard second-hand tales.

Everyone spoke about Chase’s resilience and Dashi’s intelligence and Guan’s strength. They spoke about Dashi’s puzzle-box even more. The Heylin witch was shocked when she saw that, did you hear?

Of course, no one mentioned that Wuya smiled in the end. The minute she glimpsed the puzzle-box, the only thing she could think of was that Dashi finally got the hang of his magic.

But that came at his own expense. He never seemed more miserable than when he’d opened it to trap Wuya in.

She’d come back, of course. Wuya had cursed herself with that, to always come back until she finally ruled the world. But when she came back, burning the earth to ground wouldn’t be enough to satisfy her.

That wasn’t the end of it, of course. Years later, Xiaolin legends made a saga out of the story of Dashi, the determined Water Dragon and all his marvelous inventions, and how he became the greatest warrior of his age. How he saved the world.

They also told the story of Chase Young, the Fire Dragon who later succumbed to the tricks of Hannibal Roy Bean, the Heylin warrior who lost his body and latched onto the world’s most insignificant speck.

Chase’s story even made it to the mythology sometimes taught in Chinese history books. And usually, when he was mentioned, so was Guan, whose story detailed how he promised to keep on until Chase was defeated even though he mourned his old companion late into the night.

The stories usually mentioned how the two warriors met once a year under a truce, to laugh and spar like old times. No stories mentioned that they embraced or kissed but Wuya supposed that was just old-fashioned erasure.

That wasn’t the only thing history seemed to erase. No one had mentioned Ba Wuya either. And when she was mentioned, it was only as a footnote in Dashi’s story.

* * *

_Present day_

The wedding ended up starting about one hour later, though Wuya was promptly led out of Jermaine’s room as soon as Raimundo found out where she went. That hour, in all its silent moments and small talks, went smoothly and soon enough, they were starting the ceremony.

During the tea ceremony, Wuya watched like some downtrodden Maleficent (Jack had oddly insisted that she saw that movie) as the wedding moved on.

Both beaming brightly, Jermaine and Omi both looked elegant in formal dress and so did everyone else.

The guests, dressed in oranges and pinks and other warm tones, shone with contentment and happiness for the couple but no one seemed happier than a few sentimental people sitting nearer to the front.

Seeing Janine among them, Wuya quickly deduced the people were Jermaine and Omi’s family members. But they weren’t the only ones who were overly happy.

The Dragons themselves were smiling in a way that seemed almost infectious, though Wuya did catch sight of Raimundo furiously rubbing his eyes like he was crying.

Other than that odd expression of happiness, the witch thought everyone looked happy. They were happy as they laughed and danced and ate their cake. And they were even happy when a little brown-skinned girl—Iolanda, according to Dojo’s frantic yells—went over to ask Wuya just how her hair was so red.

“Ask your parents, they know”, Wuya said, a little briskly even though she smiled. A pause. “It’s hair dye; you can get some.”

Iolanda nodded, chin up confidently. “I will!”

As the little girl hurried to Kimiko, now changed into a pink dress suitable for dancing, and rapidly told her mom how she wanted ‘ _mermaid hair like that lady’_.

Chuckling to herself, Wuya got off her seat and silently snuck out of the courtyard, slowly making her way to the vault.

Sure, she still didn’t have her magic—Chase had made sure she wouldn't for a very long time. And sure, she was just starting to bounce back from the world’s worst coffee break of a nap. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to jumpstart her taking over the world plans again.

_The monks wouldn’t miss it_ , Wuya thought, slowly remembering their smiles at the ceremony. Despite herself, Wuya found herself cursing them with happiness—however long that can last.


End file.
